


cool teens don't wear skinny jeans

by ebenroot



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: 80s inspired, Babysitting, M/M, but not really happening in the 80s, hinata has a precocious crush/majorly admires kageyama's volleyball skills, tobio and tooru are brothers, tooru and hinata are little kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-05
Updated: 2014-11-11
Packaged: 2018-02-19 23:09:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 31,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2406287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ebenroot/pseuds/ebenroot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'He was supposed to ask Suga for his number or ask if he was busy next Friday night and if he was interested in seeing a movie or something. Instead, he said in a slightly cracking and not at all calm voice, “I think I lost my kids.”'</p><p>or</p><p>that fic where babysitter no. 1 Daichi loses three kids in the city, gets into a bunch of shenanigans, and tries to ask Suga on a date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. loving would be easy if your colors were like my dream

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone talks about Papa Daichi and Mama Suga and I was just like, 'is there a fic where Papa Daichi is like a bumbling Papa and does something bad like lose the kids and Mama Suga has to help save the day' and then yeah
> 
> I listened to a bunch of 80s songs while writing this and this was mainly inspired by Adventures in Babysitting (hopefully not too much like it though)
> 
> I really don't remember where the title of this came from, it literally has nothing to do with the fic but I liked it too much to change it. I think it was from Ugly Betty. Or maybe I'm just saying stuff.
> 
> ANNND this is my first ever time writing Haikyuu!! fic omg if i totally bombed on characterizations PLEASE let me know ogd

Sawamura Daichi was a 17-year old with a plan. Granted, most of his plans were comprised of 20% overthinking, 60% induced over-hyping to carry out said plan, 70% doubting before rethinking of any alternative ways to fulfill the goal of his original plan, and a 120% chance of failing regardless due to some freak circumstances or life laughing at him in general, he was _definitely_ going to get this plan to work.

He was going to get Pizza Scooter Boy’s name.

The plan began with Daichi waking up ungodly early to make sure he looked presentable (hair combed neat, actually ironing his clothes, teeth brushed and an extra cup of mouthwash for good measure), before getting into his car and making his way to Kuroo Tetsuro’s house.

Or at least, park at the corner of the street of Kuroo Tetsuro’s house to rehearse a couple of lines to say when he caught Pizza Scooter Boy leaving his house the same time Kuroo decided to get up and continue his slacking at school instead of at home.

Daichi checked and rechecked his watch a couple dozen times while mumbling some conversation starters. ‘Hey, how are you doing today?’. ‘Hey, cool scooter. What’s your name?’. ‘Hey, I’ve seen you around and I was wondering if I can give you a ride to school or maybe get your number or-’

That sounded actually kind of creepy, he’ll have to scratch that one.

He sucked in a breath and ran a hand through his short crop of hair, careful not to mess it up. It shouldn’t be _too_ hard to talk to him. Daichi’s seen him enough times at Karasuno’s Pizza (keyword _seen_ not _spoke to_ ). He’s gotten used to how the boy would give a lilted laugh or a warm smile to every customer, or the times when Daichi's eyes would meet up with pretty amber ones and he would proceed to screw up a simple task (the last time that happened, Daichi overfilled his soda cup at the dispenser and made a sticky mess).

Daichi paused, then looked down at his cell phone buzzing on his thigh with Kuroo’s name at the top of the unlock screen. He frowned hard, then glanced at his watch just to check that Pizza Scooter Boy isn't leaving yet, before he unlocked the screen and raised the phone up to his ear.

“ _Why are you parked on the corner like some creepy stalker?_ ”

Daichi blushed, his eyes darting immediately to Kuroo’s house to see the teenager looking out the window at him in all of his ‘untamable bedhead’ glory.

“I-I-You’re up?”

“ _Yeah. I feel like I should have a Sausage McMuffin this morning. You can put it on my tab. I’m coming downstairs._ ”

“Who said I was buying it for you-wait, wait! We can’t leave yet.”

Even though he can’t see from this distance, he could tell Kuroo’s eyebrow was quirked in intrigue. “ _Oh?"_

“We. . .have to wait til like 7:20 to leave.”

“ _That’s not enough time for me to get my Sausage McMuffin on before class starts._ ”

“Can’t you just eat it quickly?”

“ _I only actively inhale food if I’m in a one-on-one eating challenge with Bokuto_.”

Daichi didn’t even want to remember the disgusting fiasco that was the ‘All-You-Can-Eat-Pancakes Buffett’ that left the three of them (Daichi was punished cause of association) banned from the restaurant for who knows how long. He checked his watch again and groaned. It was still 15 more minutes before Pizza Scooter Boy started to walk down the driveway. “ _What’s the deal anyways? You’re always the one dragging my ass out of bed for school and the one time I actually wake up on my own, you want to wait._ ”

“Are you saying I have a motive for waiting here? I’m not shady like you.”

“ _Rude_. _And I’m not the one creeping in the bushes like some pedophile_.”

“Well I-” Daichi paused, eyes widening as he saw the front door to house next door to Kuroo’s open, Pizza Scooter Boy giving a wave goodbye to whoever was inside before adjusting the strap on his backpack. “Shit, shit, _shit_.”

“ _What?"_

Kuroo’s question of confusion went completely unnoticed by Daichi as he tossed the phone in the passenger’s seat and put his car into drive. He sucked in a huge gulp of air as he tried to drive down the street in a totally casual and not rather stalkerish way. As Daichi came in closer, he could see how the light silvery hair of Pizza Scooter Boy looked wispy and blew slightly in the small morning breeze. Tucked under his arm was the round cherry red helmet Daichi was so used to seeing accompany the pizza delivery uniform. Round goggles encased those big amber eyes and Daichi gulped. His heart couldn't stop beating up against his ribcage, _god_ that boy was cute.

Daichi stopped, slightly blocking the driveway and just watched Pizza Scooter Boy as he went about getting his scooter and things ready to leave. He was completely unaware, Daichi biting his lower lip as he tried to run through a list of things to say to him and catch his attention.

Kuroo beat it to him first, unfortunately.

“What the fuck, man? Are we going to McDonald’s or what? Why are you creeping out here anyways, let’s _go_ ,” Kuroo complained from the front door of his house, his backpack in his grip as he strode out and drew the attention of the silver haired boy. Then he turned around and looked at Daichi and anything Daichi wanted to say completely went out of his head.

Daichi gaped and the boy looked between Daichi and Kuroo, who was banging on the door for Daichi to let him in. Daichi rolled down his window as the silver haired boy turned back around to continue getting ready, his cheeks red hot and his hands gripping the steering wheel tight.

“D-Do you need a ride?!” Daichi shouted and the boy looked back at Daichi. He gave a small, confused smile and raised the keys to the scooter he was about to get on.

“I’m fine, thanks. I think he does though,” he said and pointed at Kuroo.

“Yeah, and food too! Open the door!”

“Cool scooter!” Daichi shouted instead and the boy smiled again.

“Thanks, I fixed it up myself. Cool car,” he said with a thumbs up. It was a bucket kind of a car with a badly working radio and some dubious green stain that Bokuto swore he didn’t leave on one of the back seats, but if Pizza Scooter Boy said it was a cool car, then fuck yeah it was the epitome of cool cars.

Kuroo stuck his hand inside the car through Daichi's window and unlocked the doors himself, grumbling as he walked around and climbed into the passenger seat.

“Ignoring me cause you’re flirting with my neighbor, where’s your manners?” he asked rather loudly and Daichi blushed, grabbing hold of the transmission to move out of the way for Pizza Scooter Boy to back out.

“I’m not flirting with him,” he stated firmly, promptly proving his point by putting the car in reverse and ramming right into Pizza Scooter Boy’s mailbox. Daichi paused, the horror of what just happened settling in and slowly getting worse as Kuroo began to laugh. He looked at Pizza Scooter Boy, his jaw dropped and the boy removing his goggles just so Daichi could see how wide his eyes had gotten.

Daichi immediately put the car in drive and sped off, wondering if that would be considered a hit and run or destruction of private property and oh god, he’s going to go to jail cause he didn’t know how to properly flirt with someone. When they reached the first stop sign, Daichi gave a groan and banged his head on the steering wheel while Kuroo’s laughs finally died down and he sniffed.

“So are we going to McDonald’s or what?”

* * *

 

“I can’t believe I did that,” Daichi said for probably the 16th time that morning and Kuroo just took another bite of his breakfast sandwich. The two were seated out on the front lawn of the school in the shade. There was a few more minutes before the first bell rang left, leaving enough time for Daichi to get stuck with the bill for Kuroo’s breakfast and gripe about how _no one_ could fail as hard as he did with flirting.

“When were you going to tell me you had the hots for my neighbor?” Kuroo asked with a mouthful of sausage, cheese and muffin.

“Because knowing you, you would tell Bokuto who will tell _everyone_ and I don’t want to chance Pizza Scooter Boy knowing about me through Bokuto.”

“He _does_ know a lot of people, doesn’t he?” Kuroo mused.

“Yeah, he does.”

“Why would that be a bad thing if Bokuto introduces you guys if he just so happens to know who he is?”

“Because Bokuto’s always asking if I finally shitted out the stick up my ass.”

“He’s right.”

Daichi shot Kuroo a glare and Kuroo took another bite of his breakfast sandwich to ignore him. He sighed and turned to lean back in the grass. “I just want to get to know him and talk to him. Ask him out for some pizza and maybe play some games at the arcade or something.”

“You should probably ask his name first so you can stop calling him ‘Pizza Scooter Boy’.”

Daichi’s eyes widened and his hands went up to his face with a groan. “I forgot to ask his _name, ugH!_ ”

“You’re hopeless, dude.”

“Shut up! I’ve asked people out before!”

“Tch, and look where you are now. Complimenting scooters instead of people and wrecking private property.”

Daichi took the sandwich that was in Kuroo’s hand and took a passive-aggressive-but-still-very-aggressive chomp out of it. “Oi!” Kuroo shouted and Daichi swallowed the chunk down, keeping the disgust of ‘ugh, how much grease is _in_ this thing?’ down to a minimum.

“I bought this thing, it’s technically mine.”

“You’re just being salty about being the only single guy in our gang.”

“S-Shut up,” Daichi grumbled, his grip on the sandwich loosening up just enough for Kuroo to make a pass at it and snatch it back. Daichi crossed his arms in a huff. “I’ll ask him out again. I’ll go down to Karasuno’s and ask him out there.”

“Oho? Care to make this interesting?”

“Like?”

“I’ll pay you back all the money I owe you if you can manage to get his name, number, _and_ agreement to a date,” Kuroo said with a devious smile and Daichi frowned.

“You’re already supposed to pay me back.”

“Ok, I’ll pay you back _and_ I’ll get Bokuto to pay his tab too.”

Now _that_ would be a real bet. Bokuto was strangely clever in his ways of evading paying Daichi back for all of the yakiniku, slurpees, and quarters for the little rocket ship kiddie ride outside the mini-market. Daichi’s wallet would be singing hymns of praise at the thought of getting all the money back owed from _both_ of them. Kuroo waved his hand, an eyebrow raised. “Hold up, there’s gotta be something in it for us too. If you bomb as badly as you did this morning, we get driving and food privileges for one month. Anyplace we want to go and anything we want to eat, you’re paying.”

Daichi’s wallet was crying at the mere thought.

Kuroo raised his hand, bit of crumbs from the bread at the corner of his mouth as he smirked. “Do we have a bet?”

Daichi snorted before he raised his hand to shake Kuroo’s firm and tight.

“You’re on.”

* * *

 

Daichi should have realized in hindsight, that the bet probably fell in the category of 120% doomed to fail plans he’s made. During school, Kuroo brought to his attention that after a Snapchat session with Bokuto (Bokuto was having a field day about Daichi ramming into a mailbox and apparently he had to be there to see how funny it was when really it wasn’t), he learned Bokuto did indeed know Pizza Scooter Boy and Pizza Scooter Boy had a name.

Sugawara Koushi.

“How does he know so many people?” Daichi asked to no one in particular and Kuroo shrugged. Daichi snapped out of the slight glee that he actually had a name to go with the face – a really cute name for a really cute face, Christ Daichi had it _bad_ – to give a confused look at Kuroo. “Wait, doesn’t this mean I did one part of the bet.”

“Yeah, consider that my payment for the Sausage McMuffin.”

“No, I still want my money back.”

“Ungratefulness is very unattractive, Daichi.”

Daichi scoffed and Kuroo continued. “Anyways, he’s single and he swings both ways. He’s a third year like us and works the night shift usually. And Bokuto thought of something for you to accomplish since you know his name now.” Kuroo’s eyes turned more mischievous than usual. “You got to get a kiss from him too.”

Daichi gaped before he balled his hands into fists. “I can’t _kiss_ him! I don’t even know him yet! You two-”

“Oh, there’s the bell. Gotta go, good luck Daichi!” Kuroo said with a grin and gave Daichi an encouraging punch in the chest. The wind was knocked out of Daichi faster than he could lecture Kuroo and the boy took off in a dash. Daichi held his chest and tried to regain his breathing, trying to think of how to salvage this situation and hope it didn’t get any worse.

* * *

 

“Daichi, the Oikawa’s need you to babysit for the night. They’re going to a company dinner,” Daichi’s mother told him the moment he stepped inside the front door, phone in one hand and her purse in the other. Daichi blinked, wondering just how bad his day had to get before the universe decided to toss him a freaking bone for once.

“Mom, I can’t babysit tonight.”

“But I already told them that you would. What do you have to do tonight?”

“. . .”

“. . .”

“. . .I-”

“ _Daichi_.”

“ _Mom_.”

“Daichi, you know how much Tooru loves seeing you.”

Daichi didn’t even want to _start_ on how much the baby of the Oikawa’s actually irked the living hell out of him. But saying how much a six year old gets under your skin sounded pretty childish, so Daichi just settled for grumbling and groaning. He turned on his heel, grabbing his keys right back off the hook and opened the door to leave before he heard his mother call out for him. He turned, seeing her rush over and slip some money into his hand. “Maybe you all can go out for some ice cream. Wipe that frown off your face, it’s not the end of the world,” she said with a smile and pinched his cheek like she used to do when he was five years old himself.

Daichi took the money with a sigh and put on a smile for her, shoving it into his pocket as he closed the door behind him. He leaned against the door and rubbed his face, reaching into his other pocket and quickly swiped to Kuroo’s contact.

**Can’t go see sugawara tonight. Gotta babysit.**

**. . .**

**That’s a lame excuse**

**????**

**Its not an excuse**

**I have babysitting I cant get out of this**

**Woooot!**

**Then you forfeit the bet**

**Bokuto and I were thinking about**

**hitting up this place that has an all you**

**can eat crab**

**NO**

**UGH**

**ILL FIND A WAY**

**JUST NO**

**;P**

* * *

Mrs. Oikawa was the first to greet Daichi at the door, makeup caked on her cheeks and lipstick super red. It was about the same type of red as Sugawara’s helmet, which made Daichi think about how he should be making his way up to Karasuno’s with a whole new plan of wooing instead of being here. He should be talking to Sugawara and getting to know him instead of being told that Tooru has some kid named Hinata over from his Jr. Volleyball team and is spending the night. Daichi didn’t agree to take care of someone else’s kid, but kept his complaints to himself. For now.

Mr. Oikawa came downstairs in a suit and tie, with their eldest son Tobio following right behind him. Tobio was alright for a freshman, mostly because he was in that ‘smells like teen angst’ phase where everything and everybody annoyed him, and kept to himself. Whatever, made it a hell of a lot easier to know that _one_ of the Oikawa boys weren’t trying to get in his hair.

Speaking of which, where the hell was Tooru and that other kid?

“Make sure Tooru and Hinata don’t play volleyball in the house,” Mr. Oikawa said to Daichi with a friendly slap on the back and Mrs. Oikawa gave a kiss to Tobio’s cheek, leaving a red lipstick mark and a flustered Tobio trying to wipe it away out of embarrassment.

“The usual numbers are on the fridge. My number, Hinata's mother's number, the number for the nearest pizza shop in case you boys get hungry, police, fire department, paramedics-”

“I got it,” Daichi said with a laugh and Mrs. Oikawa reached into her purse, handing Daichi a couple of bills.

“Get them something good to eat. No sweets after seven. Bed before nine o’clock. We should be back from the banquet around one,” she explained and Daichi took the money with a smile. “We’ll pay you when we get back. Thank you for doing this for us, Daichi. You’re always so dependable,” she said and gave his cheek a pat. Daichi hummed, waving goodbye to the parents as they departed out the door and closed it shut behind them. Daichi stuck the money in his pocket, now having more than enough to get them some pizza _and_ ice cream if they wanted.

. . .Seriously, where the hell is Tooru-

_WHAM!_

A ball came colliding with the back of Daichi’s head and Daichi fell to his knees, hearing the loud sound of someone cooing in awe.

“You hit him right in the head! That’s so cool!”

“Yo ho~ Nice to see you, Daichi~”

Daichi closed his eyes at the sound of the coo from little Oikawa, turning his gaze up just barely to see two little boys standing at the top of the stairs from where Oikawa aimed that spike. The other boy next to him must have been Hinata. He didn’t look much older than three or four, with wild red hair sticking out in all directions and a glimmer in his eyes of complete amazement instead of shock that hello, his babysitter just got nailed with a volleyball pretty hard.

Kids these days.

“Oi! No playing volleyball in the house!” Daichi barked from his position on the floor and Hinata placed little hands to his round cheeks.

“Waaah! Scary!” he cried.

“Scary!” Oikawa shouted as well with his tongue stuck out and Daichi groaned. Tobio scoffed, reaching a hand down to help Daichi off the hardwood floor.

“I’m getting too old for a babysitter,” Tobio said matter-of-factly and Daichi rubbed the back of his neck.

“I’m just here to watch Tooru and apparently his friend. We’ll go out for ice cream later, you can come if you want,” Daichi offered and Tobio shrugged, not really giving any indication he cared. Daichi nodded, looking back up the stairs to find that the two younger boys had disappeared from their spots. But he could hear them playing upstairs, hopefully not with another volleyball and wreaking havoc. Tobio walked past Daichi into the kitchen, Daichi moving to the living room with plans to just kick up his feet on the couch and watch TV unless Tooru or Hinata get into something. He paused in the middle of the doorway when his phone buzzed and he pulled it out of his pocket, frowning hard at the Snapchat sent by Kuroo while his heart began to beat wild at the picture.

Kuroo and Bokuto were at Karasuno’s, Bokuto posing with a slice of pizza that had half of the cheese falling off of it and Kuroo pointing at Sugawara in the background pulling on a leather jacket for deliveries. Daichi twitched- _leather jackets_ – before he read the caption.

‘ **Hurry up Romeo. He’s only working til 6** ’

“Fuck,” Daichi cursed under his breath; it was 5:20 and it would at _least_ take him half an hour to get into the city with traffic.

“Daichi cursed! Oooh!” Oikawa screamed, scaring Daichi enough to jump as he spun around and saw the two kids behind him.

“Fuck! Fuck!” Hinata mimicked and Daichi tried to make a grab for the two of them, sputtering for them to ‘Stop that!’, ‘Come back here!’, ‘Oh god Hinata, _please_ don’t repeat that to your parents’. The kids ran into the living room, Tobio lounging on the couch and tossing the volleyball used to spike Daichi in the head up in the air. Hinata skidded to a stop, approaching Tobio with bright eyes.

“Great King, let’s play! I can take you on! Let’s go!” Hinata said excitedly and Tobio pushed Hinata away when he tried to reach for the ball.

“Go away. And stop calling me ‘Great King’.”

“I’m the one that should be called ‘Great King’,” Oikawa said with a pout and Hinata tried to reach for the ball once more.

“Let’s play! Let’s play!”

“I said no playing volleyball in the house!” Daichi shouted, catching the ball in midair and tucking it under his arm. He pinched the bridge of his nose, glancing out the corner of his eye at the old clock hanging on the wall next to a collage of pictures mainly featuring Tooru (it wasn’t hard to figure out who was the favorite in the family). Chasing the kids around took five minutes of time, he might _barely_ catch Sugawara if left like _right now_.

Daichi tossed the ball out of the room and out of sight, clasping his hands together with a grin.

“Who’s hungry? I’m going to go and get some pizza and I’ll be right back,” he said. No kids to hang around means more time to at least chat Sugawara up and get to know him more/get a date/get a number/probably not get a kiss but pretty much setting his way up to getting one at least.

“But I want pork buns,” Hinata said, pulling on the bottom of Daichi’s shirt.

“We don’t have enough money for that.”

“How do you know?” Hinata asked and Daichi looked down at him.

“Cause I said so,” he replied back, ‘Dad’ voice in effect to make Hinata back off. “I’ll be right back, okay. Tobio, watch them for a bit.”

“No way. What if the house explodes?” Tooru asked blankly and Tobio shot him a look.

“I’m not going to make the house explode!”

“But are you _really_ sure we don’t have money for pork buns?” Hinata asked, tugging on Daichi’s shirt again.

“The house isn’t going to explode. No, Hinata, we’re getting pizza. I’m only going to be gone for like, half an hour. It’ll be fine,” Daichi said, beginning to turn until another little hand grabbed the bottom of his shirt as well.

“I want ice cream. Do you have money for ice cream?” Tooru asked, his hand already beginning to reach for Daichi’s wallet and Daichi swatted his hand away.

“I’ll pick up some ice cream on the way back. Are you guys listening to me? Stop it, you’re stretching out my shirt.”

“Why can’t we all just go and get pizza?” Tobio suggested and Hinata pulled on Daichi’s shirt harder.

“If the Great King goes, then I want to go to!”

“Stop _calling me that_.”

“You guys aren’t listening,” Daichi said, managing to pry his shirt out of Tooru’s and Hinata’s grasp. “I can’t take you guys into the city. Tooru, your parent’s will _kill_ me if I take you into the city without their permission.”

“And they’ll kill you if you leave me with Tobio. Why can’t we go, huh? What’re you hiding?”

“I’m not hiding anything, why do you think I’m hiding-”

“Who’s he?” Hinata asked, Daichi looking down to see Hinata with his phone in his grasp and dangit, _how_ did he not feel that? Daichi snatched his phone back, seeing Sugawara leaving with his helmet on and Bokuto playing arcade games in another Snapchat sent by Kuroo.

‘ **Out on last delivery. Time’s running out. P.S. we had two pizzas. Put it on your tab.** ’

“Fu-” Daichi bit his lip in time to keep from cursing in front of Hinata, but now even  _Tobio_ was starting to look curious.

“What’s going on? You’re trying to see someone?” he asked, a little smile on his lips that could match Kuroo’s in terms of cunning and Daichi blushed.

“My Mommy is paying good money for you to watch me,” Tooru reprimanded, a _six year old_ actually _reprimanding_ him.

“Tooru, Tobio can watch you two for _just_ half an hour. I _really_ need to go.”

“Then I’m going to tell.”

_This little **brat**._

He turned to look at Tobio, who gave a shrug, then down at Hinata and Tooru who were smiling at him expectantly. Daichi looked up at the ceiling and breathed in through his nose.

“Does anyone have to go to the bathroom?”

All three boys shook their heads no and Daichi hung his head in defeat.

“Get in the car.”

* * *

 

Traffic was moving and Daichi thought that this might be the bone he was waiting for, thanking the stars as the car moved swiftly down the highway towards the city and towards Karasuno’s. He didn’t get any more Snapchats from Kuroo, not sure if Bokuto and him had already left or if they were just waiting to see if Daichi really was going to show up. Hinata and Oikawa were in the backseat, a couple of precious minutes spent strapping one of Tooru’s old carseats in the car for Hinata to use and arguing over how Tooru was too small to be riding 'shotgun'.

Tobio was wedged in between the two of them, keeping a semi-straight face as Hinata blabbed on and on about how cool Tobio’s serves were and generally making a bunch of ‘KYAA’ and ‘GWAAHH’ noises that Daichi guessed were supposed to describe Tobio’s serves. Tooru was throwing the volleyball he somehow managed to smuggle in the car against the back of Daichi’s chair, asking if they were there yet every five seconds and making empty threats about how his parents would be angry if he got hurt.

‘ _Which was **exactly** the reason I wanted to leave you at home_’ Daichi hissed in his mind, but kept his eyes on the road and not in the backseat mirror to glare at the child behind him.

“So who is this guy?” Tobio asked, interrupting Hinata’s special reenactment of a volleyball match complete with the limited movements he could make while still strapped in the carseat.

“Who?”

“The guy on your phone? Is he a friend or. . .”

“. . .Or?”

“Do you like boys, Daichi?” Tooru asked obnoxiously and Daichi almost swerved into the median in shock. He quickly adjusted the wheel and gave a nervous cough.

“It’s. . .complicated.”

“It’s okay, Daichi! I really like the Great King even though he’s a boy!” Hinata said as if he was helping and Tobio blushed, pinching the little boy’s cheek.

“That’s not the same thing, stupid Hinata,” Tobio snapped and Daichi gave a laugh, getting off the highway and onto the street. Only a few blocks away and he was going to make it just _barely_. The sudden realization that he was going to be facing Sugawara so soon made Daichi’s heart jump in his chest. He didn’t even rehearse anything or planned on what he was going to say.

‘Hey, I’d like to get two large pizzas with your number on the side.’

‘I haven’t wrecked any other mailboxes since I’ve seen you last, ha ha.’

Daichi gulped, three blocks away from Karasuno’s and he was completely blanking on what to say. What could be worse than running over the guy’s mailbox in an attempt to flirt with him? He already had kids tagging along with him and there weren’t any mailboxes for him to ram into. Maybe a tree. Or another car.

God, what if he drove into _Karasuno’s?_

“You just drove past a pizza place,” Tobio spoke up and Daichi blinked, seeing the neon lights of the Karasuno crow in his rearview mirror.

“Dammit.”

“Dammit.”

“Hinata, _don’t_ say that.”

Daichi quickly made a u-turn, ignoring the sudden blares of horns from other cars as he pulled into the parking lot right next to the building. In the corner, he could see Sugawara’s scooter parked amongst the delivery cars and Daichi breathed in a sigh of relief. He turned to look over his shoulder at the three in the backseat and jutted a thumb in the direction of Karasuno’s.

“I’m going to put the order in. I’ll be right back.”

“Can we eat here?” Hinata asked.

“I want to see the boy you like, Daichi,” Tooru said with a cheeky smile and Daichi could feel a vein pop in his forehead.

“Just sit there and I’ll be back,” he said calmly and got out of the car, taking in a deep breath before he slapped his hands on his cheeks to psyche him up. He can do this. He can _do this_. Daichi straightened his posture and began to walk to the front door, mumbling phrases under his breath and trying to keep his mind clear. Sawamura Daichi, _do not mess this up again._

He opened the door with a wide swing and slammed right into someone that was on their way out, the person dropping a box of pizza on the ground and a cherry red helmet.

Oh god, he messed this up.

“Oh, sorry!” Sugawara apologized even though it was Daichi who almost barreled him over, Daichi standing their dumbfounded as Sugawara bent down to pick the pizza box and his helmet off the ground. Luckily, the food didn’t spill out, so Daichi was able to breathe a bit more easily until Sugawara’s eyes met his when he gathered his things again. “. . .Weren’t you the boy that backed into my mailbox this morning?”

Daichi was supposed to say, ‘Hey, I’m Daichi. Nice to meet you, what’s your name? Blah, blah blah’. Instead, he quickly grabbed his wallet and pulled out the money meant for ice cream and held it out towards Sugawara with his face going as red as the boy’s helmet.

“I’m so sorry, I’ll pay for damages!” he blurted out and Sugawara laughed, pushing the money back to Daichi.

“It’s alright! You just knocked it a bit loose, I fixed it a couple of minutes after you fled the crime scene,” Sugawara teased and Daichi could actually _feel_ the blush spreading.

“I’m _so_ sorry.”

“Relax!” Sugawara said and gave Daichi a punch in the arm that made Daichi slightly recoil at the strength. “I’ll see you around, yeah?”

“S-Sure,” Daichi said and Sugawara waved goodbye, beginning to walk down the sidewalk. Daichi stood there for a few minutes, before he blinked and remembered just what the heck he was supposed to be doing in the first place. “H-Hey! Wait!”

Sugawara paused, turning to see Daichi running back to him. Daichi scratched the back of his neck. “So, uh, what’s your name?” Daichi asked, even though he already knew. Sugawara smiled and pointed at the patch on the leather jacket, reading only ‘Suga’.

“The name’s Sugawara Koushi. But everyone calls me Suga, so you’re free to do so too,” Suga said and Daichi nodded. Score one point for Daichi!

“I’m Sawamura Daichi. You can call me Daichi.”

“Daichi,” Suga said – and no, Daichi didn’t get the chills from hearing Suga say his name – and rubbed his chin in thought. “Do you know someone named Bokuto?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“You should talk with my manager. Apparently, Bokuto said you were going to pay for all of the pizzas he had cause you ‘chickened out’ or something.”

“That dick.”

“What you chickened out on? I’m curious,” Suga asked, stepping a little bit too close to Daichi and Daichi immediately stepped back.

“Uh, nothing. Nothing. I was just going to put in an order for some pizza,” Daichi said and Suga nodded, beginning to slowly walk towards the parking lot with Daichi walking beside him.

“You could have just called it in, you know. I usually am the one to deliver.”

Why _didn’t_ Daichi think of that? He didn’t know if it was because he didn’t want the chances of his encounter with Suga getting screwed up by either a) a volleyball hitting the back of his head or god forbid b) a volleyball hitting _Suga_. Plus, with Kuroo’s Snapchats egging him on, he just wanted to ask Suga out in front of the raven haired boy as a big fat ‘in your face victory’ moment. Daichi laughed it off and rubbed the back of his neck.

“I just wanted to get out for a little bit. I’m babysitting tonight.”

“Babysitting? On a Friday night? That sucks.”

“Yeah, and one of the kids is a total pain in the ass. But he’s only six so maybe he’ll grow out of it. Hopefully,” Daichi muttered and Suga laughed. Hearing it up close like this made Daichi entire body tingle, finding it in him to laugh along with Suga as they rounded the corner of the building.

“Are you babysitting a house close by or something?”

“Nah. I had to drive over here. Plus, I had to bring the kids along with me.”

“Where’s your car? Down the street?”

Daichi paused, looking around the parking lot to find that something was missing. A really _fricking_ big something. Where was his _car_? He could have sworn he parked it right next to Sugawara’s scooter, but the space was empty. Sugawara was loading his box of pizza up on his scooter and slipping on his helmet while Daichi was starting to develop a mild panic attack. He patted down his pockets for his keys to find they weren’t in there.

He didn’t leave them in the car, did he?

Tobio doesn’t even know how to drive a car, so he wouldn’t just take the car and leave him behind.

Tobio.

_Tobio._

_Hinata._

**_Tooru._ **

Oh _god he lost the kids and his car._

“Are you okay?” Daichi heard Suga asked, and he turned to look at the silver haired boy. The shine in his hazel eyes and the surrounding neon glow made him look exotic, and Daichi couldn’t even appreciate the moment because his hands were in his hair and he was so _dead_.

He was supposed to ask Suga for his number or ask if he was busy next Friday night and if he was interested in seeing a movie or something. Instead, he said in a slightly cracking and not at all calm voice, “I think I lost my kids.”

Suga blinked at him.

Daichi blinked right back.

“. . . _What_?”


	2. ninety-nine red balloons go by

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Usually when people lose something, they lose the remote control or a pencil. You’re the first guy I’ve heard of that lost a person.”
> 
> or
> 
> the chapter where Hinata drives blonds crazy while Daichi and Suga set out on their adventure into the city

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ????  
>  THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR ALL THE KUDOS AND COMMENTS IM SO HAPPY
> 
> I have like zero confidence about my writing 50% of the time so I'm just super happy that everyone's enjoying the story so far :')
> 
> The updates might come once a week since I have school and stuff, but I won't take long. This shouldn't be that long of a story anyways.
> 
> The beginning character in this chapter is probably going to be the only OC in this story, everyone else is going to cameo (probably)
> 
> (And you know, still let me know if I'm going off the end with characterization jfc)

It looked like the right car to him. It could use a little bit (actually a lot) of fixing up, but this car was easy pickings. The owner of it was some teenager, the cops weren’t anywhere nearby, and the sun was starting to set and give him the element of night.

So with that in mind, the car thief advanced in the shadow of Karasuno’s.

He ducked behind the dumpster as the kid got out of the front car and took a couple of deep breaths. He had an awkward air around him, like he was about to do something that could be both stupid and humiliating. Hopefully whatever he had to do will take him long.

Once he got a reasonably good distance away, the car thief crept closer and tested the lock on the car. The kid left the car unlocked? Tch, too easy. He opened the door quietly and slid inside the seat, growing even more surprised that the kid was actually dumb enough to leave the key still in the ignition. Oh, this was a _perfect_ hit. The car looked a lot worse on the inside than it did on the outside; the upholstery could use a lot of work and he was pretty sure there wasn’t a radio station with that many numbers and letters, but this was too good to pass up. He turned the key in the ignition and listened to the quiet hum of the motor, putting the car in drive and slowly crept out into the street.

He could see the kid talking with someone else, probably trying to hit on a worker since he could see how red his face was even from _this_ distance. He chuckled, ah young love, before he pulled into the street and sped off towards the warehouse to fix this baby up and sell it for a quick buck. It didn’t look like it would be _too_ much of a hassle. Maybe just change the upholstery and fix this crooked mirror.

He adjusted it himself so he could get a better view of the rear.

He instead saw three sets of eyes looking right back at him.

The thief whirled around to look so fast his neck could have snapped. Sure enough, there was a redhaired little kid strapped in a kiddie seat staring with wide eyes, a young teenaged boy whose face was a mixture of terror, constipation, and ‘fuck’, and a little brown haired kid who looked on the verge of tears.

None of them were screaming. Apparently they were too afraid to make a noise.

So the thief started screaming instead.

“What the hell are you kids doing in here?!”

The brown haired one started crying immediately.

“Our dad’s a cop!” the teenager blurted out (an obvious lie but if it made him feel better, ok).

“Hey mister, are you a kidnapper?” the redhaired one asked, not all that phased just yet. The thief gritted his teeth. A kidnapper had a more hefty punishment than some petty car thief. He wasn’t going to get in trouble for _this_.

“No, I’m not a kidnapper. I’m a. . .I’m a car fixer. Yeah, your friend’s car is in pretty bad shape, so I’m just going to fix it up. But first, I’m going to drop you kids off-”

“I want my Mommy! He’s going to hurt me and it’s all your fault, Tobio!” the brown haired kid cried and the teenager, apparently named Tobio, shot him a glare.

“How is it _my_ fault when we weren’t supposed to be out in the first place?!”

“ _Mommy~_ ”

“I’m not going to let you hurt the Great King!” the redhaired kid shouted, rocking back and forth in his carseat and the thief gritted his teeth. His luck picking up a car with three brats. He needed to find a way to get _rid_ of them somehow.

“He’s gonna hurt me, I-I w-want Mommy.”

“Tooru, stop crying, everything’s-”

“S-Shut up! I’m not c-crying!” Tooru bawled louder and the thief gave another groan. No wonder that kid ditched these three in the car, they’re starting to become a pain in the ass. Tobio was about to ask for a tissue to wipe his little brother’s face, but little hands reached over onto his lap and snatched the volleyball away. He turned, looking at Hinata and quickly realizing that look the child had when he was about to do something stupid and/or dangerous. “Hinata, what are you-”

“Don’t be afraid, Great King!”

“D-Don’t say stupid stuff like-wait, _wait!_ ”

“GWAHHH!”

And with a surprisingly powerful spike for a four year old, the volleyball went flying and bounced off the radio set, the passenger seat, cracked against the front window and slammed right into the thief’s face. He lost control of the wheel and the car started to spin out of control, Tobio now joining in screaming alongside his baby brother as the car skidded and jumped a curb, crashing into a few garbage cans and screeching to a halt.

The thief took the ball and threw it out the window, unbuckling his seatbelt in a rush while holding a nose that was bleeding and most likely broken.

“Forget the damn car! You kids are crazy! A _volleyball_ , **_really?!_** ” he cursed, running out the car and down the street. Once Tobio was able to feel that his heart was beating at a normal pace, he quickly glanced around at their surroundings. The neighborhood looked a bit shady, but not too threatening that he felt they would be in any danger if they hung around too long. There was a convenience store across the street from where the car crashed, and someone _should_ be there and heard the noise. All they had to do was sit here and wait-

“My ball!” Tooru shouted all of a sudden, tugging off his seatbelt. He opened the door and jumped out the car, running in the direction where the thief had threw the ball down the street.

“T-Tooru, wait!” Tobio shouted, unbuckling his seatbelt as well. Forget about his mother killing Daichi for bringing them all to the city, his mother would kill Tobio, bring him back to life and kill him _again_ if anything should happen to Tooru. He quickly unbuckled Hinata next to him. “Come on, we got to get Tooru and-”

Hinata grabbed Tobio’s hands. “Great King, wait!”

“Wha? Why?”

“I have to go the bathroom.”

“ _Now_?”

Hinata gave a furious nod yes.

“But you told Daichi you didn’t have to go.”

“I didn’t have to go _then_.”

Tobio couldn’t even see where Tooru ran off too now and damn, damn, _damn_. He glanced at the convenience store across the street - the lights were still on and _no one_ came outside to check what that loud noise was yet?- before he groaned and tugged Hinata’s hand.

“Come on, let’s go,” he grumbled, thinking about all the ways his mother will kill him when she finds out what they did tonight. Hinata gripped Tobio’s hand tight, smiling big as he was yanked along across the street to the store. It was empty when they walked in, no one around except for the blond store clerk reading a magazine and listening to music with his headphones.

Well that explains why no one bothered to check the noise.

The clerk moved the magazine back to see who walked in, scrutinized Tobio and Hinata, then went back to reading his magazine without a second glance. Tobio scoffed before he pointed at the bathroom.

“You go and use it. I’m going to go look for Tooru. Stay _right_ here and don’t talk to anyone, got it?”

“Yes, Great King!” Hinata shouted and Tobio heard the clerk snicker behind his magazine. What, _now_ he decided to not play music? Or did he just ignore the fact that someone crashed their car across the street? Tobio fought down the blush threatening to come up, gave his hardest glare of indifference towards both the clerk and Hinata, and stormed out the store.

* * *

 

Tsukishima Kei was not planning on tonight being exciting. Matter of fact, he was used to putting in the usual 48% effort at work so every night wasn’t going to be exciting. Tis the perks of working as a mini-mart clerk. At least, it was slow tonight and he only had a half hour before it was time to close up.

In the middle of reading a paragraph about the newest line of headphones coming out next month, Tsukishima heard a crash outside (which really, he shouldn’t have, what the hell these headphones were supposed to _mute all_ outside noises). He glanced out the window to see a car had plowed into several trashcans and a guy was running out after he threw what looked like a volleyball. Shortly after, a little kid climbed out and began to chase the ball down whatever street it was rolling down.

But since it was none of his business, nor did he wanted it to be, Tsukishima turned up his music and went back to reading his magazine.

A couple of minutes later, someone entered the store and he put his magazine down just enough to see who it was. Some kid that was probably three years younger than him holding the hand of a little brat that was looking at him like he was a god. And he probably did consider him to be one, since once Tsukishima turned down his headphones just to hear what they were saying and caught the raven haired boy order the redhaired kid to stay put after using the bathroom, he chirped out ‘Yes, Great King!’.

Tsukishima didn’t even bother to hide the snicker that escaped his lips.

He could tell the kid glared at him before he stomped out of the store, Tsukishima sighing at some good minor entertainment before going back to his magazine once more.

Until he felt a tug at his shoelace.

Tsukishima moved his foot and saw the little kid was pulling at his shoe. With a groan, Tsukishima pulled off his headphones to give a stern glare.

“What?”

“I have to use the bathroom,” the child said matter-of-factly.

“It’s over there,” Tsukishima said blandly and the redhaired boy bit his lower lip.

“Can you go with me?”

“No.”

“But I have to go to the bathroom,” the redhaired boy whined, crossing his legs and Tsukishima frowned.

“I’m not your babysitter. Can’t you go by yourself?”

The kid shook his head no. Well shit. If he let things go the way they were now, he’d have a puddle to clean up and some probably pissed off mom coming after him about not helping her child to the bathroom or some crap like that. With more effort than he really wanted to give, Tsukishima got up and walked around the counter. The kid made an immediate grab for his hand that Tsukishima tried to shake off, but the kid just gripped his hand tighter. He rolled his eyes and opened the door, shooing the boy inside.

“Hurry up and _don’t_ make a mess,” he threatened, the boy nodding his head wildly before Tsukishima closed it shut and leaned against the doorframe.

“Ah, Tsukki! You’re still here?” he heard a voice call out and glanced towards the front doors, seeing his freckled friend Yamaguchi peeking inside.

“I only have half an hour left.”

“Why are you standing by the bathroom like you’re guarding it or something?”

“Shut up, Yamaguchi.”

Yamaguchi laughed, shyly scratching the back of his head. He walked over to the candy display, picking up packets of M&M’s and flipping them over in his hands before putting them right back. “Whose car is that outside? It looks like someone wrecked it.”

“Don’t know. Some guy ran out and a little kid ran out of it a couple of seconds later.”

“Were they alright?”

“Wasn’t my problem.”

“It was a robber! But I saved the Great King and Oikawa!” the kid chirped up from inside the bathroom, making both Yamaguchi and Tsukishima jump.

“Oi, are you done in there yet?” Tsukishima asked, opening the door just a bit before he heard ‘WAHHH DON’T COME IN!’ and closed it back shut. “This kid is starting to piss me off,” he mumbled under his breath and Yamaguchi approached the door.

“Excuse me, but what’s your name?” he asked through the door.

“Hinata Shoyou.”

“Where’s your mommy and daddy, Shoyou?” Yamaguchi asked patiently.

“My mommy and daddy are- WAIIIT. The Great King said not to talk to strangers!” Hinata shouted back and Tsukishima rolled his eyes.

“Look kid, we don’t have all night. What’s your parent’s number so we can have them come get you?”

There was no response.

Then there was the sound of the toilet flushing.

Then the sound of Hinata struggling to reach the sink to wash his hands.

Tsukishima threw his hands up. “Forget it,” he said and walked back to the counter, already beginning to slip his headphones back to cover his ears.

“Maybe we should take him to the police station and have him wait there,” Yamaguchi suggested. At this, the bathroom door went flying open with Hinata running out crying and some toilet paper stuck to the bottom of his little shoe.

“Don’t arrest me! I’m sorry for making the robber crash Daichi’s car! _Uwahhhhh~_ ”

“W-Wait! Shoyou!” Yamaguchi shouted out, trying to catch the boy but he was a _lot_ faster on his feet that Yamaguchi was, fleeing the mini-mart and running off to god-knows-where. Yamaguchi bit his lower lip, not liking the thought of knowing a little kid was running around the city possibly without his parents even knowing. He then glanced at the car across the street stuck on the curb with the dented up front and the cracked windshield. “Where’s the Yellow Pages?”

Tsukishima pushed a thick book towards his friend, watching him out of the corner of his eye as he flipped through the pages, circled a box, and wrote down the number. “I’m going to go to the police station really quick and I’ll be right back.”

“Whatever,” Tsukishima grumbled, seeing Yamaguchi leave and run in the opposite direction that Hinata ran in. He glanced at the clock and placed his magazine to the side, looking at the number Yamaguchi had circled. It was for a towing company that was relatively close to the mini-mart, it shouldn’t take them that long to come and pick the car up. He sighed and moved back around the counter, flipping the sign from ‘Open’ to ‘Closed’.

This _really_ wasn’t his problem. He had better things to do this Friday night than worry about some kids.

* * *

 

“Usually when people lose something, they lose the remote control or a pencil. You’re the first guy I’ve heard of that lost a _person_.”

“Three of them, apparently,” Suga added.

Ukai laughed even harder and Daichi wanted to crawl in a hole and die. But that wouldn’t get the kids back, so he stood there in humility of the owner of Karasuno’s himself, Ukai Keishin. Suga crossed his arms and gave a sorry look to Daichi, though the smile on his lips at how absolutely absurd the situation was couldn’t be hidden. “So can we borrow one of the cars for tonight? I’ll return it tomorrow morning and just park my scooter in the garage,” Suga offered and Ukai hummed, taking the cigarette from his lips and stubbing it out in the ashtray on the counter.

“So _you’re_ Daichi. You’re the one that funny-haired kid said was going to pay for those pizzas?” Ukai asked and Daichi sighed, mentally cursing Bokuto wherever he was as he reached in his wallet and gave Ukai a twenty. “Plus, you’re taking one of my cars and using my best employee to help you look for your rugrats you ‘misplaced’. That’s a fee.”

“You can’t be serious,” Daichi said flatly and Ukai held his hand out expectantly. Daichi ‘tched’ and slipped an extra ten bucks in Ukai’s palm, who then handed the money over to Suga.

“Make sure the tank is full when you get back. I’ll drop off a fresher pizza by your folk’s place and explain what’s happened,” Ukai said, tossing the boy a set of keys and Suga nodded his head. Ukai then glared at Daichi, thick eyebrows furrowed. “Don’t pull anything on Suga. He’s a good kid.”

“W- _What?_ ”

“He’s just pulling your leg, come on,” Suga said, pulling Daichi by the arm out of Karasuno’s and towards the back again. They passed by Suga’s scooter and a few delivery cars already, Daichi pointing at one car.

“So you guys don’t drive these cars?”

“We do. If the delivery guy knows the streets on his own or could use a map. They kind of guzzle up a lot of gas, though. I doubt twenty bucks is going to cover a full tank. Which reminds me.” Suga pulled the ten bucks out and handed it back to Daichi, who took it with a confused expression.

“Isn’t this your fee for-”

“I’ll charge you _after_ we find the kids, okay? Besides, he was just playing with you,” Suga teased.

“You don’t really have to do this, you know. I mean, I don’t want _your_ Friday night ruined because you decided to help me,” Daichi said and Suga rounded the corner to the garage and unlocked the door.

“It’s no big deal. I wasn’t doing anything tonight anyways. Besides, there’s no way you could cover this entire city on foot. And with your driving skills, no way I’d trust you with one of our vehicles by yourself.”

Daichi paled. Suga just laughed.

He lifted the garage door open, Daichi seeing a simple compact car parked snug inside. Suga unlocked the car from the remote, gesturing for Daichi to climb in the passenger seat while he strode over to the driver’s seat. This car was _way_ more advanced than Daichi’s car was. A navigation screen, a radio that could get satellite, an upholstery that _didn’t_ have some dubious green stain. Daichi was actually kind of glad that he was riding in the delivery car so he didn’t have to deal with the embarrassment of Suga riding in his own car.

“Okay,” Suga started, turning the key in the ignition and listened to the car engine come to life, “Your car is missing and there _have_ been some incidents of car thefts in town, so worst case scenario would be that the kids have gotten kidnapped. In which case, we should go to the police station.”

Daichi wanted to cry. God, he’d never get annoyed with Tooru again if he knew that he and his brother and Hinata were okay. Suga slowly began to pull out of the garage and head towards the street. “The other option would be that the kids might have wandered out of your car before it got stolen and maybe went to one of their favorite places.”

“You’re pretty sure my car was stolen?”

“Well I thought about maybe your kids took the car for a joyride, but I kinda doubt a six year old would get very far driving a car.”

“One of them is fourteen,” Daichi said, like it made any difference. Suga hummed, stopping just before they entered the street.

“So where do you want to look first? Police station or some toy shop?”

“. . .Let’s go to the police station. If anything, I hope Tobio would be responsible and _try_ to find the police,” Daichi said, worry in his voice. Suga gave Daichi a soft pat on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure when we get there, the kids will be waiting for you and all you’ll have to worry about is your car,” he said with a smile. Daichi nodded, Suga’s smile putting his worries at ease for the moment as they turned onto the street.

* * *

 

“Would you mind repeating that for me again, sir?”

“I, uh. . .I lost the kids I was supposed to be babysitting. And my car got stolen. With them inside it most likely.”

The man behind the counter blinked, tapping the pencil he had between his fingers in a nervous rhythm as he gave a little laugh. Daichi saw the man’s name tag; Ennoshita apparently didn’t believe Daichi could be _this_ incompetent to lose his kids and his car all in the same night. Daichi placed his hands on the counter and swallowed hard. “Look, I just want to know if any of them came in here.”

“Or if anyone has seen them?” Suga asked as well

“Could you give a description?”

“One’s fourteen, short black hair, frowns a lot. There’s probably a three or four year old kid with red hair with him calling him ‘Great King’ or something. And his little brother is around six, has brown hair, is super obnoxious, and likes older women,” Daichi paused; what if Tooru wandered off into a brothel cause he saw some ‘pretty women’ outside of it? Oh fuck, fuck, _fuck!_

“A six year old liking older women?” Suga asked with a little laugh.

“He’s a natural flirt when he starts rolling.”

“You should probably take some lessons from him so you won’t back into someone else’s mailbox next time around,” Suga said and Daichi felt his brain overheat. Suga knew Daichi tried to flirt with him this morning? And he needs help from a _six year old?_ Daichi turned, putting his face in his hands to alleviate the past embarrassment while Suga accepted some paperwork to file a missing person’s report. Suga gave Daichi a nudge and handed him a pen. “We might have to call their parents,” Suga said and Daichi gripped the paperwork a little too tightly.

“They can’t find out I lost their kids! I need to get all three of them back home before midnight and they _can’t_ find out,” Daichi said strongly, stepping aside to allow a freckled kid to walk past and up to the counter. Suga scratched the corner of his eye, his finger running over his beauty mark – Daichi never was this close to Suga to actually _notice_ he had a beauty mark right below his eye and _woah_ – as he hummed.

“Well, we don’t really have a lead as to where they could have gone. What do they like to do? Were they hungry or anything.”

“Hinata likes pork buns,” Daichi said quickly, remembering the child whining about getting pizza instead. “Are there any shops nearby that sell that?”

“Hmm. . .maybe Nekoma’s. . .”

“Nekoma’s?”

“It’s a family joint-slash-arcade. I think they have pork buns on their menu,” Suga said with a scratch to the back of his head and Daichi gave a nod.

“It’s a start. Tobio shouldn’t be too far away then, I doubt Hinata would be someplace Tobio wasn’t.”

“Tobio’s the fourteen year old, right?”

“Right. So all’s that’s left is Tooru.”

“The six year old womanizer.”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe a strip club.”

Daichi must have made a face so horrified that it made Suga laugh and wave his hands. “Joking! Joking! He couldn’t have strayed too far away from the other two either.”

“What’s with the sudden increase of kids losing kids around here?” Daichi heard Ennoshita ask behind the counter and he gave a glance at the freckled kid who waved his hands nervously.

“N-No, he isn’t _my_ kid. I’m just concerned that his parents might be looking for him or something. Or at least the guy who was driving his car might be worried what happened to it.”

Daichi grabbed the kid by the sleeve of his jacket and yanked him over, clutching him by his shoulders extremely tight with a deadly look in his eyes.

“What kid are you talking about? What car? Where are they? What did you do to them?” Daichi rambled off and the freckled kid almost looked like he was physically shrinking in Daichi’s presence.

“U-Um, w-well-”

“Are they hurt? Are they alive? Answer me, this is serious!” Daichi barked, shaking the kid and Suga quickly pried Daichi off so the boy could breathe and not faint out of fear.

“What my friend _meant_ to say was if you’ve seen a little kid or a fourteen year old by any chance?”

The freckled kid rubbed the back of his neck and gave a calm breath. “Do you mean Shoyou? Little boy with red hair-”

“ _That’s him! Where is he?! Was Tobio with him?!_ ” Daichi shouted and grabbed the freckled kid by his shoulders again to shake the information out of him.

“N-No! I-I don’t know! He just r-ran off before I could ask any more questions.”

“Which way was he headed?” Suga asked and the freckled kid pointed south.

“In the opposite direction. Towards downtown, I think,” he replied and reached into his pocket. “Um, about your car, it was pretty damaged when it slammed into those trashcans.”

“My car hit _trashcans?_ ” Daichi asked and Suga placed hands on his hips.

“Your car just seems to be a magnet for knocking things over,” he said with a smile and Daichi gave a sarcastic laugh. The freckled kid swallowed nervously and handed Daichi a slip of paper. “I called a tow truck to come and move it, it should be in his garage. He said he’ll fix it up too, apparently the car blew a flat as well. H-He’s really reliable so I wouldn’t worry about it,” he said and Daichi took the paper with a nod, reading the number and the name of the business.

“How did my car hit trashcans?” Daichi asked and the freckled kid shrugged.

“My friend said he saw some guy running out of the car and a little kid running out afterwards. Shoyou said it was a robber, but he saved the ‘Great King and Oikawa’.”

“Well, one mystery solved,” Suga said with a grin and Daichi nodded his head, breathing in slight relief. So at least they weren't _completely_ kidnapped. But if this freckled kid said his friend saw another child run out the car, then that meant Tooru was missing in the city all on his own.

"And you didn't see a fourteen year old boy that Hinata was calling 'Great King'?"

The freckled kid shook his head. _Great_ , that meant all  _three_ of them were separated. Daichi sighed and rubbed his face. At least he knew where his car was. Now all he had to do was call and find out where this garage is so he can get it and not inconvenience Suga any longer-

He patted his front pockets for his phone. Then his back pockets and then the pockets in his jacket, coming up empty. _Really?!_

The freckled kid caught on to Daichi’s dilemma rather quickly and gave a nervous little laugh. “Wow, tonight really isn’t your night, huh?” he asked and Daichi only mumbled a groan. “Uh, good luck finding Shoyou. I’m sure he’s alright, considering he made the robber crash and ‘rescued’ them all, right?”

Hinata _might_ be capable of taking care of himself. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t do something stupid along the way. Daichi sighed and stuck the piece of paper in his pocket, looking to Suga with a determined expression.

“Is Nekoma’s downtown?”

“Yeah. You think he might pass by there?”

“We could give it a shot at least,” Daichi murmured and Suga turned to the freckled kid.

“Thank you. . .um. . .”

“Y-Yamaguchi Tadashi,” the boy introduced and Suga nodded.

“Yamaguchi, thanks. If you happen to see Hinata again or maybe some other little kid hanging around women, can you call this number?” Suga said, taking the pen back from Daichi to write his number on Yamaguchi’s hand. Daichi flushed red, he still had to get Suga’s number. How the heck was he supposed to get Suga’s number without his phone, _ugh_. Yamaguchi nodded and with a wave, promptly departed the police station. Suga and Daichi left quickly after, Ennoshita saying he’ll put out a notice to police to have a look out for kids matching Daichi’s rather unique description.

Once they were back in the car with seats buckled, Daichi checked his watch. “It’s almost seven. We need to get the kids back by midnight at _least_. But they need to be in bed by nine. What if Hinata and Tobio aren’t at Nekoma’s? What if Tooru _did_ wander into a strip club? The Oikawa’s are going to kill me, my _Mom_ is going to kill me-”

“Daichi.”

Daichi looked over and Suga slapped both of his hands on the sides of Daichi’s face extremely hard. The stinging sensation was almost masked by how soft Suga’s skin was against his own, and how Suga’s thumb was slowly rubbing circles into Daichi’s cheekbones.

Even though it still hurt like hell when he did it.

“A babysitter can’t lose their composure. Those kids are counting on you to bring them back home safe and I’m going to help you,” Suga said sternly and Daichi blinked. “You got it?”

“Got it.”

“Good. Onwards to Nekoma’s then,” Suga said and put the car in drive.

* * *

 

Hinata was positive that Blondie and that Freckles guy weren’t chasing him, slowing down to take a break and catch his breath. He rubbed his eyes, plopping down on the ground exhausted and gave a whine. He was _starving_. If Daichi would have just bought pork buns, then none of this would have happened.  He wouldn’t be separated from the Great King and Oikawa and Daichi, and Daichi’s car wouldn’t have crashed.

Hinata sniffled. Daichi was going to be very angry when he found out what happened to his car, and Hinata didn’t like it when Daichi got angry. He was sure he could help pay off some of the damage; he had, like, a gazillion coins in his piggy bank (which was a whopping estimate of $3.50). Hinata rubbed his eyes and looked in the window of the building he was next to. From inside, he could see that it was an arcade, not that many kids inside playing tonight, but a lot more people were here than at the convenience store. Maybe one of them saw the Great King or Oikawa or knew Daichi.

He glanced up at the sign and realized he couldn’t read what it said at _all_.

But it had a fat cat sleeping in the neon light, so maybe this place had cats somewhere.

Hinata wasn’t sure if he liked cats.

Regardless, Hinata marched inside and looked for the nearest adult. But instead, something distracted him.

The smell of pork buns.

It was extremely close and Hinata followed the scent immediately to an arcade game where two steaming buns were placed on a stand in Hinata’s reach. This place had free food lying around? Yes! Hinata gladly helped himself to one and chomped down on it, smiling big at the taste and the heavenly smell wafting into his little nose. Hinata looked up at the arcade game, seeing it was some old-school shooter game with neon stars along the side and a galaxy theme decal along the front.

The person playing the game was looking down at Hinata, particularly at the pork bun Hinata just helped himself to.

Hinata swallowed and gave a smile. “Hi!”

“. . .Uh. . .hello. . .”

Hinata took another bite and blinked at the boy, looking at his hair and his face illuminated by the game’s screen.

“Is that your real hair?”

“Huh? No, it’s dyed,” the boy replied, pinching a blond lock of hair.

“You look cool.”

The boy scratched his cheek. “Uh, thanks.”

Hinata continued to eat the pork bun and the boy continued to look awkwardly uncomfortable, reaching down and taking the second pork bun that was on the little stand. “I never knew a place had free pork buns before,” Hinata commented, making as much small talk as a four year old could make.

“These are actually mine,” the boy said and Hinata’s eyes widened.

“ACKKK! I’m sorry!” Hinata apologized, spitting out the bit he had in his mouth, sticking the chewed up part back on the pork bun and then handed it to the boy as a token of his apology. The boy quickly inched away, waving his hand frantically.

“No, you can keep that one. It’s okay.”

“Really?! Thanks!” And Hinata continued to eat happily. “I’m Hinata Shoyou. What’s your name?” he asked with a mouthful and the boy slowly started to get up.

“Kozume,” the boy replied and moved over to the next video game - a fighting beat-em-up style – and deposited his quarters inside. The boy selected his characters and moved to the first round, his fingers at the ready as the numbers counted down and the word ‘ **FIGHT** ’ appeared in bold and red letters. He only made one combo when a loud ‘WOOW’ sounded next to him and he jumped, seeing Hinata was right by his side staring up at him in amazement.

“Kozume, you’re really good!” Hinata complemented and Kozume blinked while his character was getting pummeled on screen.

“Uh, thank you.”

“I wanna play! I wanna play!” Hinata chirped and Kozume glanced around.

“Are your parents around?”

“Hey, I wanna do that thing when he punches the guy like ‘GRAHHH’! Show me! Show me!” Hinata shouted, jumping up to hit the buttons on the control panel and effectively give Kozume a ‘game over’. Kozume’s eye twitched and he slowly inched away, trying to move to the next game without being spotted by the rambunctious child. He rounded the corner and moved to a game that was on the far wall of the arcade, eyeing the checkered flags on both sides of the console. He wasn’t one for racing games, but it was in an isolated area at least. Far away from the other kids and not as noticeable and flashy as the other games.

Kozume slipped into the seat and put in his quarters, switching the cars and tracks with the pedal until he had his preferred set-

“Cool! Cars! Kozume, you’re so cool! Can I drive?! Can I?!”

Kozume was at a loss for words, only feeling sticky fingers clutch at his shirt as Hinata climbed atop his lap and grabbed hold of the steering wheel. “You’ll be the pedals cause I can’t reach them, okay? We’re gonna win!” Hinata shouted, making engine noises with his mouth.

Kenma Kozume apparently gained a new fan.

He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update next Sunday/Monday!


	3. coulda made it cruising

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "@movies with the bae Kenma Kozume. 2 bad kid is cramping my style. @Sawamura Daichi dude, sending ur kid to cockblock me is uncool >:("
> 
> or 
> 
> the chapter where Hinata cockblocks, Tooru extorts, and Daichi tries to keep it together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg I was really thinking that I wasn't going to update this week cause my computer updated software and for some reason deleted a gigantic chunk of my documents including this story #technology
> 
> I realized I haven't pointed out that the chapter titles are lyrics from songs from the 80s (which is probably the only 80s thing you'll see around here). First chapter was Karma Chameleon by Culture Club, second chapter was 99 Luftballoons by Nena, and this chapter is Heart of Glass by Blondie to introduce Asahi and Noya (who should have been in this story like a whole lot earlier but I literally freaked out about writing them so yeah any comments will be much loved)
> 
> I forgot the name of Nekoma's coach so I just called him the manager in this story, my bad.

Kuroo tossed his now drained slushee in the trash as he strode into Nekoma’s, the electronic *ping-ping* of the old timey arcade games ringing in his ears and the suffocating smell of pork buns cooking filled his nostrils. He didn’t know why his boyfriend always came to this arcade place when there were literally 500 other arcades that had games from this century, but he wasn’t going to question Kenma and his deep intense passion for old-school games. With a quick glance at his watch to make sure they weren’t going to be late for the movies, Kuroo began to walk around the arcade in search of the pudding-haired boy.

A few moments later, after circling around the arcade games Kuroo _knew_ Kenma would be hanging around and getting confused when the boy was nowhere in sight, Kuroo spotted someone sitting far away from the other games at a racecar arcade game. Only, something was totally off. He could see that Kenma was playing his DS, the device practically smothering the boy’s face. But on Kenma’s lap was a child about three or four years old, turning the steering wheel wildly and turning his body with it. As Kuroo approached closer, he saw that the game wasn’t even running. It was only playing the demo video, with the bold ‘ **INSERT TWO COINS** ’ flashing repeatedly on the screen.

Obviously, the child couldn’t read.

Or maybe he didn’t care.

Kuroo leaned down, Kenma and the child still blissfully unaware, and smiled.

“Is this your way of saying you want to see younger people?” Kuroo asked and Kenma jumped, which made the child jump and throw his hands back, which _then_ made Kenma’s DS smash up against his face hard. Kuroo leaned back, trying to keep the laugh threatening to come out his throat down as the redhaired child issued his apology with puppy dog eyes. Kenma mumbled an ‘it’s okay’ before he turned to look at Kuroo with his usual tired golden eyes.

Kuroo pointed at the kid climbing off Kenma’s lap as Kenma moved to get up. “I didn’t know you were babysitting. Hell, I didn’t know you baby _sat_.”

“I don’t. He came out of nowhere and won’t leave me alone,” Kenma explained and Kuroo crossed his arms.

“Where’s your parents, Shrimpy? Me and Kenma have a movie to catch,” Kuroo replied and the boy’s eyes brightened.

“A movie? I wanna go!”

“That’s not what I said. Are you lost or something?” Kuroo asked and the boy rubbed his nose, eyes averting Kuroo’s gaze.

“Um. . .uh. . .”

“Okay, come on. We’re taking you to the front desk,” Kuroo said with a sigh, grabbing the child’s wrist to tug him towards the front with Kenma following close behind. Honestly, Kuroo couldn’t see how Daichi could do something like this every other week. A small smile began to form on his lips at the thought of his friend chickening out on coming to Karasuno’s tonight. He and Bokuto managed to talk to Sugawara while they were still there, Kuroo adding the boy on Facebook and getting his number so they could be texting buddies. Course, he really just wanted the number so he could extort even _more_ from Daichi. He didn’t decide just what the price of Sugawara’s number would be, but he’s sure it’ll come to him eventually.

He turned to Kenma with a grin. “You don’t have to worry about buying any food for the next month, cause Daichi lost a bet with me and Bokuto and all our food is going to be free. You’re included, you know.”

“I have a job. I don’t need Daichi to pay for me.”

“He also has to drive us around wherever and whenever we want too.”

“But I have a car.”

“Kenma, you’re not understanding the situation here-”

The child stopped and Kuroo glanced down, seeing big gold eyes being swelled up with tears. Kuroo jumped away from the boy as if he were a bomb about to explode, Kenma quickly crouching down to give a pat to the boy’s back as he began to whimper.

“Shoyou? What’s wrong?”

“I-I broked Daichi’s car. H-He can’t drive it anywhere now. _Uuuwahh_ -“

“Stop that. Don’t cry. You’re going to make a scene,” Kuroo said worriedly. The manager already thought that Kuroo was pretty shady (like it was his fault he was born with this slightly shady face and his slightly shady personality), but he didn’t say anything about it cause Kuroo was with Kenma and Kenma probably spends more at Nekoma’s than next video-game addicted child. The kid, Shouyou apparently, started to rub his nose and sniffle and Kuroo groaned. Kids were such a pain, seriously how does Daichi do this-

“Daichi? Sawamura Daichi, right?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“Does this Daichi get super scary when he gets super angry?” Kuroo clarified and Shoyou nodded his head yes. “Then it’s the same Daichi. . .so you’re one of Daichi’s kids? Well where is he?”

“I-I don’t know. I lost him and the Great King and Oikawa and I broked his car so how is he going to find us? _Nnngghh-_ “

Kenma started to rub Shoyou’s back in little circles, awkwardly not knowing how to comfort a crying child and hoping Shoyou kept his cries quiet so people won’t look over their way. Kuroo sighed, reaching into his pocket to grab his cellphone. “Don’t worry. I’ll just call him and he’ll come over to pick you up. Then me and Kenma can go to the movies, which starts in like half an hour.”

Shoyou bit his lower lip, watching Kuroo place the phone to his ear and wait for the phone to ring. He heard someone’s cell phone ringing, taking Kuroo a little bit longer than a second to realize that he recognized that obnoxious ringtone. Because he was the one that picked that obnoxious ringtone to be his personal ringtone whenever he called Daichi. The ringing was coming from Shoyou and Kenma reached into the pocket of Shoyou’s jacket, pulling out the ringing cellphone that was _supposed_ to be in Daichi’s possession.

“ _Why do you have his cell phone?!_ ” Kuroo snapped and Shoyou jumped.

“I-I thought he was coming right back and I just wanted t-to look at it. It l-looked really cool. Don’t yell at _meeee_ -”

Kuroo bent down and put his hand over Shoyou’s mouth to stop the sob from escaping, eyebrows furrowed hard. He looked at Kenma and then at Shoyou and then at his watch. Discount tickets at the movie theaters were going to start in 28 minutes and the late-night showing of the slasher flick was going to start soon.

“Maybe we should have the manager call his parents,” Kenma suggested and Kuroo nodded. Shoyou clung to Kenma immediately.

“But I still need to find the Great King and Oikawa! The Great King needs me!”

“But _we_ need to go to the movies,” Kuroo explained.

“What if the Great King is _at_ the movies? Take me with you!”

“Are you just saying that to see a movie?”

“I’m sure the Great King likes Space Travelers cause Space Travelers are cool like the Great King. We should see Space Travelers!” Shoyou explained like it was a simple conclusion and Kuroo frowned.

“Me and Kenma are going to the movies. You’re too little to go with us.”

“Am not. I’m a big kid.”

“We’re going to do grown up things at the movies,” Kuroo said flatly, a rare flush of red appearing on Kenma’s face in an instant as Shoyou cocked his head to the side.

“Like what?”

“Like cuddling and kissing and telling each other how we love each other very, very much,” Kuroo said with kissy-kissy noises. The hand that was rubbing Shoyou’s back went to Kenma’s face in a ‘I can’t believe I’m still not used to you saying this crap’ expression. Shoyou crossed his arms and gave a pout.

“But can’t you do that for free? Why are you paying to go to a movie for it?”

Was Kuroo seriously getting scolded for the use of his money by a four year old? “When I was your age, I got grossed out by older people doing that. What’s the deal?”

“I’m going to do that with the Great King someday, so it’s not gross! And I’m going to play bolleyball with him too cause he’s so cool!”

“ _Volley_ ball,” Kuroo corrected and Kenma took Shoyou’s hand.

“Hinata,” Kenma was going for the firm, adult angle here, “we need to take you the police so they can call your parents and look for this ‘Great King’ for you.”

“But I want to find him myself and stay with Kenma. And go see Space Explorers. If you’re just going to be kissing, _somebody_ had to watch the movie,” Hinata complained and Kenma tried to keep his face stern.

“We’re not going to be kissing.”

“Aw boo,” Kuroo pouted and Kenma sighed.

“Well we’ll just have to call his parents and wait here with him-” Now Hinata _and_ Kuroo were whining and Kenma had to wonder when he was designated to take care of two children tonight. Kenma got to his feet and so did Kuroo, the two teens looking down at the child and trying to figure out what to do. Kuroo snapped his fingers and gave an ‘oho!’, “Bokuto’s at Lev’s party tonight. Kids like parties. Bokuto likes kids. Let’s drop him off there!”

“You would _seriously_ leave a child in the hands of Bokuto and Lev?” Kenma asked with a dead expression and Kuroo paused, rubbing his chin. Daichi would probably strangle him with his own guts if he even _thought_ about leaving one of his kids with Bokuto and Lev.

“. . .Good point. . .ugh. . .fine, _after_ the movies, we’ll go to Daichi’s place and drop him off.”

“Yay!” Hinata shouted and Kuroo reached out to hold Kenma’s hand. Instead a little hand wormed it’s way into his grasp and he looked down, seeing Hinata was in between them and holding Kenma’s hand, chattering to Kuroo’s boyfriend how Kenma would like Space Explorers as well because Kenma is cool like a Space Explorer (but not as cool as the Great King, sorry).

Something was itching in the back of Kuroo’s head that this was going to not be a fun night for him.

* * *

 

The lights were all out and there was no sign of Hinata or that annoying blond clerk.

Tobio stood in front of the closed convenience store, Daichi’s car gone from the street and the trashcans set back up. He couldn’t find a trace of Tooru and now when he went back to claim Hinata, the boy was gone.

Only one word could utter past Tobio’s lips, and he was sure if Daichi was here, he’d slap the back of his head.

“Fuck.”

* * *

 

This was definitely not his night. It just had to be his luck that the same night he picked for the three of them to hang out was also the same night Asahi wanted to take Noya on their 2 year 4 month anniversary date. Noya just loved it when Asahi got all stupidly sentimental and blushy about them dating so Tanaka’s plan was down the drain in an instant.

Don’t get him wrong, he was glad his best friends got together after watching Asahi stumble through three awkward high school years of trying to confess to Noya and Noya being too oblivious to realize that Asahi statistically got 50000% more awkward around him than anyone else. And he knew that it would be weird if he third wheeled and simultaneously kill any romantic moment Asahi tried to make. He could always call Yamamoto and see if he was free tonight, but that would probably just lead them to a night of leaning against a wall, commenting on a cute girl, and not doing a damn thing about it.

Tanaka sighed and rubbed the back of his head. He needed to find something to do tonight. Tanaka Ryuunosuke didn’t need Asahi and Noya to have fun! He was the definition of fun! Fuck yeah! Slapping his hands to his face to psyche him up, Tanaka balled his hands into fists. First thing off, go to the mall and woo some girl with his manliness.

Tanaka began to stride down the street, whistling a small tune to keep himself in the zone and stopped at the corner. He glanced down, seeing a small brown haired boy huddled up near a tree, clutching a volleyball tightly. The child looked up, then back down at the ground, then up at Tanaka, then inched closer to the tree as if he was trying to make some sort of escape. Tanaka raised an eyebrow, not sure what to do. It was obvious the kid didn’t know where the hell he was, but he didn’t want to admit it. Geez, kids can be such a pain.

“Oi, kid-”

“Don’t come near me, you gangster!” the boy shouted and Tanaka blinked.

“I’m not a gangster, you brat. Are you lost or something? Where’s your Mommy?”

“Why should I have to tell you?” the kid asked, pulling down his lower eyelid and stuck his tongue out. Tanaka frowned, gritting his teeth.

“That attitude is starting to piss me off. Knock it off and get back to your parents,” he replied, _trying_ to be the bigger person. It was rather hard, seeing as Tanaka can go from a 20% mentality of responsible 24 year old to a 100% mentality of a 12 year old. The kid stepped back and raised his volleyball.

“If you don’t leave me alone, I’m gonna hit you!”

“Oh? I’d like to see you try to-“

_WHACK!_

The ball bounced right off Tanaka’s forehead in a perfect and powerful spike and landed at the child’s feet, quickly snatching it back up for a second attack. Tanaka looked down, the gigantic red mark against his forehead mixing with his now brooding and dark look. “ _You got another thing coming to you, kid_ -”

“Is there something wrong here?” a voice asked and Tanaka turned to look over his shoulder, a police officer standing behind him. Tanaka heard a thud and turned back around to see the kid had fallen to the ground all of a sudden, holding his wrist and crying loud like he was being mauled. “Ah! My leg! It hurts! I think it’s broken! You’re such a mean person, I’m just a little kid!” the child cried and Tanaka blinked, looking at the child and then back at the police officer.

“WAIT, WAIT! I didn’t do anything! You don’t really _believe_ this do you?!” Tanaka exclaimed, pointing at the child that crawled over to pull on the police officer’s leg and say how he could see the light (where is this kid _getting_ this crap), groaning and whining and pulling every trick out of the actor’s handbook. The officer crossed his arms and looked at the child with a raised eyebrow.

“Trust me, I don’t. Get up before you actually hurt yourself,” the officer said with a stern look and the child pouted, climbing to his feet and mumbled about how the cop was being ‘mean’. The officer then looked at Tanaka and pointed at the child. “Do you know him? We’re supposed to be on the lookout for a couple of missing kids and I just so happened to find you harassing one.”

“I wasn’t harassing him! He was harassing me!” Tanaka shouted.

“But you’re supposed to be an adult, I’m just a little kid,” the child said in his defense like it really mattered. Which it did, cause the cop was giving Tanaka a suspicious look. Tanaka bit his lower lip, trying to find some way out of this mess. He glanced down at the child and quickly began to ruffle his hair.

“Y-Yeah I know him! He’s my nephew! Just babysitting him tonight and we had a little fight, nothing to worry about!” Tanaka lied. Best to just get the cop to thinking Tanaka had nothing to with the kid before he starts running. The cop blinked, then looked down at the child.

“He’s your uncle?” he asked and the child moved out from under Tanaka’s hand, holding the volleyball in his hands and turning it around. He glanced up at Tanaka with a smile that looked too calculating and too cruel to be on a child’s face, eyes glinting a hint of mischief.

“I don’t know. Is my mean uncle going to take me to get an ice cream sundae with lots of hot fudge and whipped cream and a cherry on top?” the child asked with a sickeningly sweet tone and Tanaka’s eye twitched. He glanced at the cop, the officer waiting for a response with tired eyes and Tanaka smiled, continuing to ruffle the child’s hair.

“Of course I am, you _scamp!_ Cause I just _love you so much!_ ” Tanaka said through gritted teeth and the child laughed.

“I love you too, Uncle! Someone has to!”

_Why you little **shit**._

The officer mumbled something along the lines of ‘it’s too late and I’m too tired to be dealing with this’, turning on his heel and walked away from the two of them without word. The child swatted Tanaka’s hand away from his hair, his own hand going up to straighten it.

“Don’t rub my head so hard, I don’t want to go bald like you,” the child said with an upturned nose. Tanaka could literally feel a vein bulging in his forehead, his fist clenched.

“Listen here you little-“

“Agh! My wrist! I think-” Tanaka quickly slammed a hand over the child’s mouth, looking around wildly in case that cop decided to linger around.

“Stop that! Come on, I’ll buy your ice cream dammit!”

* * *

 

“We’re supposed to look for a womanizing kid, a ‘Great King’ and his fanboy, right?” Officer Iwaizumi asked his parter. Aone nodded his head, his ever present frown on his face as he waited in the car for Iwaizumi to check on the little quarrel between the child and the delinquent. He could have _sworn_ that kid could have been one of the kids they were supposed to find, he looked like he could get into a lot of shit if he wasn’t watched or had someone around to slap some sense into him.

Iwaizumi wasn’t quite sure if he bought the whole ‘Uncle’ act.

Best to keep an eye on those two. Just in case.

* * *

 

The slasher flick was already sold out when Kenma, Hinata and Kuroo arrived to the movie theaters. And it took them a hell of a lot longer to walk to the theaters since Hinata got distracted by almost every single little thing, complained about walking, and spent a good amount of precious time arguing with Kuroo on how he was a meanie for not giving him a piggyback ride to the theaters.

“What other movie do you want to see?” Kuroo asked Kenma. At least the discount tickets still applied to all the movies. Kenma gave a shrug.

“I don’t care. Whatever is fine with me.”

“Space Explorers!” Hinata screamed and Kenma shrugged again in his nonchalant way of saying ‘sure’. Kuroo wanted to cry. And that was how they got here, Kuroo listening to screaming kids and their parents trying to get a hold of them, Hinata chatting excitedly about the movie as if he already had watched it five times. Kenma was only giving ‘hmms’ and a ‘that’s nice Shoyou’ every once in a while, having his DS to keep him preoccupied during the pre-trailer clips. This is it. This is Kuroo’s personal hell and punishment for mooching off of Daichi so much. To be cockblocked by the kid Daichi was supposed to be watching.

“Ne, Kenma, I’m hungry. Can we get popcorn?” Hinata asked and Kenma nodded his head ‘yes’, not moving to get up in the slightest. Hinata turned to Kuroo, looking at the boy with expecting eyes and Kuroo frowned.

“What, do you want _me_ to get it?” Kuroo asked and Hinata nodded his head, Kenma nodding his head as well. Kuroo gave an exasperated groan, slouching in his seat as another kid ran by screaming ‘Space Explorers!’. Kuroo rubbed his forehead, looking down at the phone he managed to confiscate from Hinata. There has _got_ to be a way to get in contact with Daichi. Hinata tugged on Kuroo’s sleeve. “I’m _hungryyy_ ,” Hinata whined and Kuroo reached into his pocket, about to get up and buy the popcorn already before an idea popped in his head.

He was brilliant.

“Say, you want to be as cool as a Space Explorer, right?”

“Yeah!”

“Space Explorers are so cool, they get to buy their _own_ food.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, so I’m giving you the chance to be as cool as a Space Explorer by buying your own popcorn!” Kuroo said, pulling out five bucks and handing to Hinata. The child made a loud noise of awe and took the money in his hands like it was the holiest of objects. With a cry of ‘Space Explorers!’, Hinata bounded out of his seat, down the aisle, and out the theater to the lobby. Kuroo grinned at his clever ways before he slid into the seat next to Kenma that was now freed up. Kuroo leaned back and stretched his arm to wrap around Kenma’s shoulders, but the boy swatted his hand away.

“The movie is starting,” Kenma said, the lights beginning to dim and Kuroo gaped.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Shh.”

“But _Kenma~_.”

“Don’t whine.”

Kuroo made a dying groan anyways, turning in his chair with a pout while Kenma’s eyes focused now on the movie screen playing a trailer for some cutesy talking animal movie. Kuroo pulled out his cell phone, deciding that he might as well check Facebook and see how Lev’s party is going.

* * *

 

“Do you know how many kids come in and out of here? How am I supposed to recall if I’ve seen these three kids that you’re talking about?” the manager of Nekoma’s asked, his cat-like grin not faltering in the slightest. Daichi hung his head in defeat, Suga gave a disappointed sigh and scratched the back of his head.

“I would have _sworn_ at least one of them would have passed through here,” Suga said and Daichi looked at the boy.

“It’s alright. We’ll just have to keep looking,” Daichi said and turned to the manager, giving a respectful bow. "Thank you for your help,” Daichi said, mentally adding a _Thanks for nothing_ to the end of the sentence and the man crossed his arms with a laugh.

“Make sure you find your kids soon, it’s dangerous to be running around town like this!” he said and Daichi nodded his head, the two teens turning on their heels and walked out of the arcade. Back to square one again, it seemed. Daichi leaned against the wall and closed his eyes as Suga hummed.

“Let’s see. . .if they ran on foot, we would have to check places that were near the car crash. We should also call and see how your car is,” Suga replied, taking out the note that Yamaguchi had given him and pulled out his cell phone. Daichi watched the boy in slight amazement at how _calm_ he was. Daichi was pretty sure if he was on his own, he would have been a frantic mess tearing up the entire city looking for the kids and eventually having to involve their parents and the police. Daichi knew how scary persuasive the Oikawas can be. They’ll probably get the entire _SWAT_ team to tear up the town for them if they’ll find Tooru (and Tobio and Hinata).

Yet, Suga was the calm in the storm. Confident and critically-thinking while all Daichi could do is blindly follow his suggestions and hope that luck will finally be on his side. Suga paused and glanced up, his eyes meeting Daichi’s and he blinked. “What is it?”

“N-Nothing. Just. . .you’re so calm about this. It’s almost like _you’re_ the caretaker.”

Suga smiled. “I’ve had my share of babysitting duties with my nieces, so I know how nerve wracking it is if something goes wrong,” Suga said and punched Daichi in the chest, Daichi trying to hide his strangled cough that emitted on contact. “We’ll find them! Just think of the next place where they could have gone in the city,” Suga said. Whoever on the other line must have answered, since Suga turned away to say a polite ‘Hello’ and begin to explain the situation.

Daichi rubbed his chin. Tobio could be with Tooru; even though they both annoyed each other and fought, Tobio was still Tooru’s big brother and there’s a big pride of protecting your siblings that comes with it. The two of them might be at some place with volleyballs. A gym? Were there any gyms that were even open this time of hour? And wouldn’t Hinata want to play volleyball as much (or maybe even more than) them? Where would he have disappeared to?

Ugh, this was like finding three needles in a haystack.

An ice cream truck rolled down the street, the annoying jingle of its tune not mixing well with the honking horns of the cars around it. Daichi watched as it turned the corner and went down the street, pausing for a moment before his eyes widened. Ice cream! Tooru wanted ice cream before they left! And when Tooru wanted something, he’d usually be a pain in the ass until he finally got it. If there was at least an ice cream parlor nearby, maybe, just _maybe_ Tooru and Tobio would be close by.

It was a longshot, but it was a possibility.

Daichi turned to Suga with proud eyes at his clever deduction while Suga hung up the phone with a slightly worried look. “I think I might know where Tobio and Tooru might be! Are there any ice cream parlors nearby? _Really_ popular ones?”

Suga scratched the spot near his beauty mark as he thought. “Maybe. . .Dolce Dateko? They serve ice cream and gelato and frozen yogurt, pretty much anything that’ll rot a kid’s tooth to the core.”

“Sounds like a good place to check,” Daichi said with a grin and Suga gave an uneasy smile back. “. . .What’s with you?”

“Well. . .I just got off the phone with the guy and do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?” Suga asked and Dachi blinked. Oh god, what _now?_

“. . .The good news?”

“Your car is pretty close to getting fixed up and it’s waiting at the garage. The damages have been fixed and no one would even notice that it collided head on into trashcans,” Suga explained and Daichi breathed a sigh of relief at that. At least he didn’t have to worry about his mother questioning him about the sudden appearance of random dents in the car.

“. . .And what’s the bad news?”

“. . .I don’t suppose you have $200 to get it out of the shop?” Suga asked lightly and Daichi almost choked on his breath.

“$200?! I-I don’t have $200! I’m not even going to get paid until _after_ the Oikawas are home and by then it’ll be too late!”

“W-We’ll find a way to pay for it _after_ we find the kids! Focus!” Suga said with a determined look, glancing down at his phone when it made a little *ping* noise. “Oh, Kuroo mentioned you on Facebook.”

“What? Wait, you know Kuroo?” Daichi asked astonished. More importantly, you have him friend on _Facebook?_ Suga nodded his head and handed his phone to Daichi so he could read the status.

“Him and Bokuto were at Karasuno’s tonight. He asked for my number so he could give it to his ‘lovesick loser’ of a friend and he seemed like a cool guy, so I friended him on Facebook,” Suga explained, Daichi feeling a vein pop at the thought of Kuroo calling him a ‘lovesick loser’. He’s one to talk, he’ll turn into a trained dog and do tricks to declare his love for Kenma if the boy should ask (which he doesn’t cause Kuroo can get hella embarrassing about lovey dovey stuff). Suga gave a little inquiring smile in Daichi’s direction. “You know, I’m curious if this ‘lovesick idiot’ and the ‘guy who chickened out’ are one in the same.”

“Er, well, I-“ Daichi paused in his stammering to fully read Kuroo’s status, eyes widening when he got towards the end of it.

**@movies with the bae Kenma Kozume. 2 bad kid is cramping my style. @Sawamura Daichi dude, sending ur kid to cockblock me is uncool >:( **

One of the kids are with Kuroo and Kenma? Daichi wanted to scream in joy, _yes!_ He turned to Suga with bright eyes and handed the boy his phone. “Where’s the closest theater from here? I think one of my kids is with Kuroo and his boyfriend.”

“It’s a couple of blocks away towards downtown, but it’s not very far. Did they find them?” Suga asked, the two quickly walking to the car so as to not lose the first lead they had. Daichi shook his head ‘no’, smile coming to his face.

“I bet one of them _did_ come to Nekoma’s. I know Kenma always comes down here to play games. Maybe it was Hinata, since I doubt Kuroo would get annoyed with Tobio and Tooru probably would get bored with the both of them and ditched them already.” There was also the fact that Hinata couldn’t sense the mood and realize he was getting in the way of Kuroo’s advances, so at least he knew Kuroo wasn’t doing anything inappropriate for Hinata to mimic. Suga gave a little laugh and Daichi looked over at him. “What?”

“You were just saying how you were freaking out and panicking, yet you’re thinking and planning just as hard on how to find your kids. You give yourself way less credit,” Suga said and Daichi blushed, averting his eyes for a quick second.

“W-Well, you’re with me now and you keep me calm. So I wouldn’t say it’s all me,” Daichi explained and Suga blinked.

“I keep you calm?”

“. . . _I-I mean_ -“

“Well you’re making my night interesting,” Suga cut him off with nudge to the shoulder. “So I’ll say thanks to that and you can thank me for keeping you cool. Sound good?”

“. . .Sure,” Daichi said, the two boys climbing into the car, the movie theater their next destination.

* * *

 

“Oh come on, it wasn’t _that_ scary,” Nishinoya Yu said to the bathroom stall door. His response was a lurching groan over the toilet bowl by his boyfriend and he sighed. He had to appreciate Asahi for _trying_ to sit through the slasher flick, knowing how badly Noya wanted to see it compared to the gentle rom-com they could have watched instead. He’d probably have to go and watch it again with Tanaka some other time. Or at least another time when Asahi didn’t have such a queasy stomach to gore and guts.

He listened to the toilet flush, Asahi emerging a couple of seconds later with a sweaty face and his hair tied into an even tighter bun. Noya sighed and gave Asahi’s back a couple of hard slaps. “Honestly, what am I going to do with you?” he teased, Asahi groaning and took a paper towel to wet and wipe his face. “Want to go for some ice cream? Or do you want to go home and relax?”

“Ice cream sounds good. I can go for ice cream,” Asahi said, determined to not let his glass heart and weak wills ruin this date. Noya smiled, wrapping an arm around Asahi’s as they walked out the bathroom and into the lobby, teasing how since Asahi managed to get through watching three dumb teenagers get hacked into pieces, he deserves an _extra_ scoop of ice cream and toppings. Noya laughed while Asahi only sighed in embarrassment, pausing in his steps however when he felt a small hand slide into his free one.

Noya glanced down, seeing a redhaired child gripping his hand tight and looking forward like he _didn’t_ approach a complete and total stranger. Noya looked at the kid, then at Asahi who was just as confused. “Uh, hi?” Noya said and the child looked up at him.

“Hi.”

“. . .Are you lost?”

“Aren’t _you_ lost too?”

“What makes you think _I’m_ lost?” Noya asked and the child was about to say something, when it seemed he noticed that Asahi was _also_ right there next to him.

“Ack! Scary!” the child shouted and Noya gasped, looking at Asahi with scolding eyes.

“Asahi, stop that at once!”

“But I’m not doing anything!” Asahi cried and Noya laughed, giving his boyfriend a pat on the back as he crouched down to the child’s height.

“Don’t worry about him. He’s just a big softie. I’m Noya, what’s your name?”

“Hinata Shoyou,” Hinata introduced, his smile getting bigger and bigger at Noya’s warm attitude. Noya ruffled Hinata’s hair with a grin.

“Did you lose your Mommy, Shoyou?”

“Nuh-uh. The Great King lost _me_. I need to find him right away!”

“Great King, huh?” Noya said thoughtfully and looked over his shoulder at Asahi. “Have you seen a ‘Great King’ around here, Asahi?”

“What? What’s a ‘Great King’?” Asahi asked and Hinata jumped in excitement.

“The Great King is the coolest person ever. He serves really good and he’s really smart and when he hits the volleyball, he’s like GRAWW and HYAHHH,” Hinata shouted and Noya crossed his arms.

“Really? Cause when _my_ Asahi hits a volleyball, it goes ZOOOM and YAHHHH!”

“Can you two stop screaming like that? You’re not making any sense,” Asahi said worriedly and Hinata looked at Asahi.

“If you can play just as good as the Great King, then do _you_ know where the Great King is, old guy?” Hinata asked and Asahi felt like he got a shot through the chest. He was only 25, he wasn’t _that_ old. Noya stood to his feet and held his hand out to Hinata.

“How about this, Shoyou? We’ll help you look for your Great King, okay? In fact, we’re just about to go to the ice cream parlor. Does the Great King like ice cream?” Noya asked and Hinata’s eyes brightened.

“I like ice cream!”

“Close enough!” Noya chirped and Hinata shouted out a ‘Yay!’.  Asahi grabbed Noya’s shoulder, worriedly looking around for anyone that could be watching them. This was illegal, wasn’t it? He didn’t want them to be suspected of being kidnappers (mostly because with how small Noya was, Asahi already looked like he was on a date with an underaged minor and didn’t want coercing a child into leaving with him to appear in the minds of the people around him).

(It didn’t.)

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” Asahi asked and Noya smiled.

“We’re going to Dolce Dateko’s near the mall, right? There’s a child services area inside the mall and we’ll drop him off there. _After_ ice cream,” Noya said and gave Asahi a light hit to the arm. “Relax, big guy. Nothing to worry about,” he said with that confident grin that Asahi loved so so much. Noya leaned up on his tip-toes to give a reassuring kiss to Asahi’s cheek, making red flush over Asahi’s face and a nervous little chuckle slip out past his lips.

“Woahh. Noya, show me how to make someone old fall in love with me too!” Hinata blurted and the red of love on Asahi’s face was replaced with the scarlet of embarrassment. Noya laughed aloud. “I like this kid!” he exclaimed, Hinata taking his hand while Asahi only glumly walked behind the two.

If he wanted an excitably loud person to accompany them on their date, he would have just asked Tanaka.


	4. knee deep in the hoopla

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What if this kid is the son of some head yakuza or mob boss or gangster and decided to go back to his dad and tell him how one Yachi Hitoka didn’t want to eat ice cream with him and his dad orders a hit out on Yachi. Yachi couldn’t die yet, she still had to return those library books."
> 
> or
> 
> the chapter where Suga is totally not Daichi's boyfriend, Tooru manipulates, and a kid is found

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title chapter comes from "We Built this City" by Jefferson Starship
> 
> WOW I TAKE BACK WHAT I SAID LAST CHAPTER THIS CHAPTER WAS THE HARDEST TO WRITE YACHI UGHHH. I just love all the Haikyuu!! characters so dang much I just freak out about writing them Yachi pls Yachi. Plus, I think I sort of rushed this chapter, didn't really check it over and idk what to even do about it tbh OTL
> 
> For some reason, I started calling Oikawa. . .Oikawa, instead of Tooru later on in the chapter. I'll refer to him by Tooru in the next chapter when Tobio crosses paths with him again. 
> 
> Your comments and kudos have been so amazing this past week (college and work totally takes up time yo) so thanks for being patient and I hope you enjoy!!

“Ah, thank you! You’re so nice and pretty!” Tooru chirped to the waitress who just delivered his one scoop of rainbow sherbet ice cream. The girl, Shimizu by her name tag, only gave a small nod of acknowledgement.

“Thank you,” she said and turned to look at the man sitting across from Tooru with a raised eyebrow. “You never told me you had a nephew, Tanaka.”

“O-Oh! Well, you know, I just never got around to it. Maybe we can just hang out some time and talk and get to know each other more, Kiyoko?” Tanaka said with a loud laugh. Kiyoko hummed, the noise not sounding like she was particularly interested in talking, nor really turning him down either.

Tanaka will take that as a maybe. He’s totally fine with maybe.

Kiyoko walked away to tend to the next table while Tooru only scoffed. “You’re so lame. She doesn’t even like you,” Tooru criticized and poked the ice cream with his spoon. “And I said I wanted a sundae, baldy.”

“Oi, be lucky I even bought you _that_. The moment you finish, I’m taking you to the child services in the mall and getting you out of my hair.”

“ _What_ hair?” Tooru joked not-so-innocently and Tanaka gave a glare. Tooru sighed and slumped over the table, his volleyball seated right next to him. “I want a sundaeee.”

“Stop whining and eat your ice cream already,” Tanaka scolded and Tooru whined louder. He didn’t _want_ this ice cream, he wanted a _sundae_. If only stupid Daichi didn’t lose the three of them, at least he was easier to threaten ice cream out of than this guy was. Tooru pushed his ice cream forward, turning around on the bench and hopped down.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” Tooru announced and Tanaka grunted. Tooru turned his nose, he should probably ditch the guy and go find Tobio or Hinata. Or maybe go somewhere more fun at least. Tooru ‘hmphed’, marching over towards the bathroom as a girl walked inside the parlor and dropped the wallet she was fumbling around with. Tooru paused - figuring his bladder could wait just a moment – before he moved to pick the wallet up and hand to the girl with a cutesy smile. “Here you go, Princess,” Tooru cooed and the girl turned red, the hand that went to take her wallet back still just as clumsy as before.

“P-Princess?”

“Mmhm! Cause you’re pretty like one!”

The girl gave a little giggle. “You’re really cute. What’s your name?”

“Oikawa Tooru. What’s yours?”

“Oi! I thought you were going to the bathroom! Stop bothering people!” Tanaka shouted all of a sudden, pulling Tooru back with a yank. “Sorry about that! Kids these days!” he said with that same loud laugh he used on Kiyoko, Tooru eyeing the man with the frown. The girl waved her hand, blush spreading on her cheeks.

“Oh no! It’s okay! He was being very polite,” she said quickly and Tooru rushed over to take her hands in his small grasp.

“Do you want to have ice cream with us, Princess?”

“Oh, um. . .well actually I was just getting something really quick before my shift-”

“Eh? You won’t?” Tooru asked, his lower lip beginning to quiver. This girl looked like she was extremely weak-willed and could get suckered in if he pulled the right look. He could see the gears in her head turning, Tooru gripping her hands tighter. “Please?”

“Oi, kid. She’s not interested-”

“I-It’s alright! I don’t like eating by myself anyways. It wouldn’t hurt to sit with you for a while,” she said quickly and Tooru grinned. At least he’d have the company of a pretty older girl than baldy over there. Speaking of which. . .

“Yay! My uncle was about to order ice cream sundaes and we can share one!” Tooru exclaimed and looked over his shoulder at Tanaka with that dark little glare that goes 98% unnoticed by adults. “Ne, _uncle_? You’ll get ice cream for Princess and me?”

Tanaka looked like he wanted to strangle Tooru, but the girl gave a little smile at the thought. “Really? That’s really nice of your uncle to treat you for some ice cream,” she said and turned to Tanaka. “Um, I’m Yachi Hitoka. It’s very nice to meet you,” she introduced and Tanaka paused, taking in her face and her rather dorky uniform (she wore a hideously lime green vest adorned with tacky buttons, maybe she worked at a sports bar or something), before a light blush came over his face.

“I’m Tanaka Ryuunosuke.”

“Tanaka? But isn’t your family name Oikawa?” Yachi asked Tooru and Tanaka slammed a hand over Tooru’s mouth before the boy could even respond.

“Sister! He’s my sister’s son!” Tanaka blurted out with a nervous laugh and Yachi nodded her head in understanding.

“Um, I’ll just be over there then,” she said with a nervous smile, both Tanaka and Tooru nodding their heads and watched her move to sit down at a table. Tanaka grabbed Tooru and yanked the kid close as he knelt down to his level.

“You better not pull anything funny with this girl, damn it,” Tanaka threatened with his brooding glare and Tooru scoffed.

“Girls don’t like gangsters. Especially dumb ones like you,” Tooru said and stuck his tongue out. Tanaka growled and flicked his finger against Tooru’s forehead. And Tooru – being the overdramatic child when it was convenient for him – promptly cried out and held his forehead, running over to Yachi to fall on her lap and cry how his uncle was being so _mean_. Yachi promptly began to panic and rub Tooru’s back while Tanaka only stared in frustration. Eventually, the man slowly walked up to the front counter where the person behind watched the whole scene unfold and was giving Tanaka a judgmental look (or maybe that was just his face).

Tanaka glanced at his name tag – this ‘Ushijima’ guy wouldn’t be judging him if he knew what kind of kid Tanaka was _dealing_ with here – and said through gritted teeth, “Get me one hot fudge sundae”.

* * *

 

“Seriously? You are literally the fourth person that came in here asking about missing children.”

Tobio blinked, looking at the man behind the counter. He would have thought that Hinata or Tooru would have tried to come to the police if they were lost, they couldn’t _still_ be wandering out in the city, could they? The man sighed and pulled out a clipboard to hand to Tobio. “Fill out this missing persons report. And please leave more information other than your name and number to contact.”

“Did someone else come in looking for kids?”

The man started to fiddle with his name tag in thought – Tobio barely reading the name Ennoshita – before he rubbed the back of his neck.

“One kid with freckles came in to ask about a little kid that ran away from him. And then there were two other teenagers, I think boyfriends or something, looking for three missing kids.”

“Boyfriends? What did they look like?” Tobio asked, curious if it was who he thought he was.

“I don’t remember, it’s been hours since they came in. But I think the gray haired one managed to write his name and number down before they suddenly left,” Ennoshita commented, shifting through the paperwork on his desk and pulled out another clipboard. “. . .Uh yeah, ‘Sugawara Koushi’.”

Tobio didn’t know that name, so they couldn’t be looking for him. “Do you know who else was with him?”

“His boyfriend? He had short black hair and was kind of panicking. He gave us _really_ crazy descriptions of the kids we were supposed to be looking before. A ‘Great King’ and some ‘womanizing kid’ and-”

“W-Wait. They were looking for a ‘Great King’?” Tobio asked, flush spreading to his cheeks. Of all the descriptors to use for Tobio, Daichi had to use the stupid name Hinata gave him?

“Yeah. A ‘Great King’ with a little kid following him around and calling him that. Why? Do you know where they could be?” Ennoshita asked, pencil ready to write down the newest information. Tobio blinked, then blushed, then looked around for anyone that could possibly remember the moment he actually acknowledged Hinata’s term of endearment for him and mumbled. “Sorry, what was that?”

“. . .I’m the Great King,” Tobio mumbled just a little bit louder and Ennoshita cocked his head to the side.

“You’re the ‘Great King’? But where’s your fanboy?”

“I don’t know! That’s why I came here looking for him!” Tobio shouted out, embarrassment crawling over his face. Ennoshita sighed, moving to pick up the phone.

“Well at least we found _one_ of you guys. I’m going to call Sugawara to let his boyfriend know you’re at the police station. Have a seat right over there,” Ennoshita said with a gesture to the row of blue plastic seats along the wall. Tobio sighed, shuffling his feet over to the plastic chairs to plop down and slouched in his spot. Some Friday night he was having.

* * *

 

“Hinata hasn’t been back in a while,” Kenma commented out of the blue, eyes fixated on how Space Explorer Innuoka boldly charged into the cave of the blue monster with a battle cry of ‘GWAHH’ on the screen. He got a snore in response, Kenma turning to nudge Kuroo awake. Kuroo jumped with a confused noise, looking at his boyfriend with tired eyes. “He was just supposed to go to the lobby, right?”

“Yeah? What about it?”

“He hasn’t come back and I’m starting to get worried.”

Kuroo stared at Kenma for a few seconds, Kenma staring right back until Kuroo threw his hands up with a loud groan.

“So _I’ll_ go out and look for him cause it was my fault for sending him to get popcorn alone. That’s what you’re saying, right?” Kuroo asked and Kenma smiled gently. He gave a small pat to Kuroo’s hand and Kuroo took Kenma’s hand in his own to squeeze before releasing and getting up to his feet. Kuroo walked down the aisle and out the theater to the lobby, figuring that maybe half an hour had passed since he last remembered seeing the kid. He couldn’t have strayed _too_ far, the lobby wasn’t big and there wasn’t that many things in the theater to keep a child occupied.

Kuroo scratched his chin, not spotting a small redhaired child anywhere near the snack counter or the condiments area. Maybe the bathroom? Kids always had to go to the bathroom, didn’t they? Or maybe the arcade?

Kenma shouldn’t be _too_ mad at Kuroo if the kid wandered off. It’s not like he was _his_ responsibility-

“Kuroo! Hey, Kuroo!” a familiar voice shouted and Kuroo froze, seeing Daichi running up to him with a flushed face and a big smile on his lips. _Daichi_ on the other hand. . .

Daichi wrapped arms around Kuroo in a hug that Daichi usually would _never_ give Kuroo. It was one of those embraces you’d give someone you’ve wanted to see in years and it just felt really weird for Kuroo, which in turn made him really, really _scared_ why Daichi was so freaking happy. Daichi pulled away and began to look around, head whirling while he talked. “We got here as soon as we can. Don’t worry, I’ll take Hinata and then we’ll leave you and Kenma alone on your date. Where is he? Is he in the movie theater? Is he using the bathroom? Where is he?” Daichi rattled and Kuroo gulped.

“. . .Uh. . .well. . .hm. . .”

Daichi paused, looking at Kuroo with a confused expression. “One of my kids _is_ with you, right?”

“Well. . .Daichi, it’s actually a funny story-”

“Kuroo,” Daichi said quietly, his expression beginning to darken and Kuroo pointed a finger.

“Y-You can’t even get mad at me for losing your kid when you lost him first!”

“Who says I lost him?! _How could you lose him in a movie theater **this size?!**_ ”

“How could _you_ lose a kid in the freaking _city_?”

“Don’t try to change the subject!”

“You can’t use your ‘Dad’ voice on me!”

“Guys! Guys!”

Kuroo blinked, seeing Sugawara stepping in between the two of them and placing hands on Daichi’s shoulders to rub and calm the boy down. Daichi instantly began to fume less, blood rushing to his cheeks in embarrassment as Kuroo raised an eyebrow in interest. “Oh ho? _Now_ I get it,” he said with a slowly growing sly smile and Daichi quickly slammed a hand over Kuroo’s mouth before he could even make another comment. With a quick smile thrown in Sugawara’s direction and an ‘I’ll be right back’, Daichi pushed Kuroo off towards the arcade.

Once they were a reasonable distance away, Daichi removed his hand from Kuroo’s mouth and moved his grip to Kuroo’s shirt.

“How long did it take for you to lose him?” Daichi asked and Kuroo cocked his head to the side.

“Are you on a date with Sugawara right now? Is _that_ why you ditched Hinata? Dude, _I’m_ trying to get a little something tonight too if you catch my drift.”

“Wha- _no!_ God, we _just_ met and he’s helping me find my kids-”

“Kids? You lost Hinata and another kid?”

“. . .I lost Hinata and the Oikawa’s sons,” Daichi admitted, Kuroo staring at the boy for a few seconds before letting out a loud guffaw.

“ _Seriously?!_ Man, today just isn’t your day! I’m _so_ telling Bokuto about this-”

“Kuroo, shut up for a second and just answer my question. How long ago did you last see him?”

“I don’t know, maybe half an hour. I fell asleep in that stupid Space Explorer movie he wanted me and Kenma to see, so I kind of lost track of time. Hey, did you get his number?”

“You mean the number you planned to extort more out of me than you already are?”

“What, no. The number I was going to give you cause you’re my bro of _course_ ,” Kuroo said with a laugh that grew less than enthusiastic the longer Daichi glared at him. “. . .Is the bet still on?”

“That stupid bet is honestly the last thing that’s on my mind right now,” Daichi said with a scoff, running a hand through his hair as he groaned. “I’m just concerned about where my kids are and what I’m going to do to find them _and_ find $200 to get my car out of the garage.”

“Dude, what _else_ happened to your car?”

“It’s a long story,” Daichi admitted with defeat and Kuroo whistled.

“I’d hate to be you right now. You are literally the most unlucky person I’ve met so far.”

“You’re lucky Suga is with me right now, otherwise I would have put my foot down your throat a long time ago,” Daichi said darkly and Kuroo shrugged, digging into his pocket to pull out Daichi’s cell phone. Daichi stared at the device with a confused expression and Kuroo rolled his eyes.

“Hinata’s a freaking klepto, dude. He swiped it when you weren’t looking,” Kuroo explained and Daichi took his phone back, dread coming over his face.

“Oh god, what if he sees something in a store and tries to take it and they think he’s stealing and get the _police_ involved-”

“Daichi!” Sugawara shouted out and both of the boys turned, seeing the boy running over to them with his cell phone up to his head. “One of the kids checked in at the police station we went to and he’s waiting for us!”

“R-Really?” Daichi stuttered and Sugawara nodded his head, taking Daichi’s hand firm in his grasp. Kuroo snickered at the way his friend’s face grew a dark shade of red while Sugawara remained completely oblivious of the fact.

“Sorry about disrupting your date,” Sugawara apologized and Kuroo waved his hand.

“No problem. Hey, good luck tonight,” Kuroo said with a wink in Daichi’s direction and Daichi grew even redder. Not having enough time to yell out a ‘Shut up, Kuroo!’ or fulfill his promise of putting his foot down Kuroo’s throat, Daichi was tugged away by Sugawara towards the front doors. Kuroo crossed his arms and hummed. If Hinata was here, and there’s another kid waiting down at the police station for them, then that would have meant Daichi’s time with Sugawara would be cut a whole lot shorter. Which meant that Daichi would have had less time to get the stick out of his ass and actually make a move on Suga. So _really_ , by losing Hinata, Kuroo had created more time for Daichi and Sugawara to spend together looking for him and give enough time for Daichi to spit it out to Sugawara. He’s done his friend a just service in the quest of getting a boyfriend and getting laid.

Kuroo smiled a big smile; he was such an awesome friend. And with that, he turned on his heel and whistled a little tune as he went back to the movie theater where his boyfriend awaited.

* * *

 

Yachi Hitoka was a good person. She recycled, she always made sure to stay out of everyone’s way, and all she wanted to do was get some ice cream before her shift. And when she fumbling with her wallet trying to count how much money she actually had and dropped it, she wasn’t expecting a little kid to come around and try to schmooze her into sitting with him. She was _going_ to turn him down, get her ice cream and leave.

Then she saw the kid’s uncle and everything changed.

The guy was freaking scary and he talked like some gangster, which immediately put Yachi into panic mode. What if this kid is the son of some head yakuza or mob boss or gangster and decided to go back to their dad and tell him how one Yachi Hitoka didn’t want to eat ice cream with him and his dad orders a hit out on Yachi. Yachi couldn’t die yet, she still had to return those library books (would the librarian try to send her bills even if she was dead? What if they couldn’t bury her body because she didn’t pay the fines of two books overdue and leave her body to be picked by buzzards and crows because she was mean to the yakuza’s son and didn’t turn her library books in on time. Oh god, she was a _horrible person_ ).

So since Yachi didn’t want to be assassinated, she agreed and there she was now. Sitting on the bench next to the yakuza’s son feeding him ice cream like the slave girl he turned her into in literally five seconds. Not that Oikawa minded, happily content as his uncle continued to bring round and rounds of ice cream to the table and trapping Yachi in her place. And to make matters worse, it seemed like the uncle was sort of _flirting_ with her. Always asking if she wanted to have some more ice cream or trying to make small talk before being interrupted by Oikawa whining about something and demanding 130% of Yachi’s attention. She was trapped, what was she going to _dooooooo?_

“Ice cream! Ice cream!” a happy child chirped as the doors opened while Yachi was crying on the inside. Oikawa paused in eating his spoonful to turn, Yachi looking too to see a little child with red hair practically leaping towards the counter, two men following behind him. The tall one looked like a thug, while the smaller one had a blond streak in his hair and looked rather like a delinquent. Oh no, were they reinforcements? Were they going to kill Yachi anyways? _What she do wrong????_

“Noya? Asahi? What are you guys doing here?” Tanaka spoke up and the men turned, the smaller one waving at him with a toothy grin.

“Yo! Just getting ice cream, nothing much. What about you. . .wait, what’s going on?” the man gestured to Yachi and Oikawa and Yachi made a small squeak that she hoped no one else heard. Tanaka immediately got up and gave a nervous smile towards Yachi.

“Uh, I need to talk with my friends. I’ll be right back,” he said, getting out of the booth and pushing his two friends quickly out the restaurant. Were they planning on how to kill her now? She needed to escape somehow. There was a loud noise – more like a cry of amazement - and Yachi jumped again, seeing the redhaired child was standing next to their booth and looking at Oikawa in awe and excitement. Or maybe he was looking at the enormous ice cream sundae Oikawa was holding, Yachi wasn’t quite sure honestly.

“Oikawa, I found you! The Great King is going to be so happy! Ne, can I have some ice cream too? I want ice cream! Can I have this one? Is it chocolate?” the child asked as he already made his way up onto the bench and helped himself to the chocolate ice cream sundae Oikawa was eating out of. Yachi stared rather horrified, didn’t this child knew who _this_ child was???

“Eww, go awayyyy Hinata,” Oikawa whined, pushing Hinata away while Hinata happily covered his face with chocolate ice cream and chopped peanuts.

“U-Um, who is the ‘Great King’?” Yachi asked and Oikawa frowned.

“He’s my dumb brother that lost us along with my babysitter,” Oikawa said with an upturned nose and Yachi blinked.

“But. . .isn’t your uncle babysitting you?”

“That’s not my uncle,” Oikawa said flatly, then opened his mouth to be fed more ice cream by Yachi. Instead, Yachi just sat there with her hands folded in her lap, just trying to understand what the hell is going on here. If that wasn’t Oikawa’s uncle, then. . .was _he_ a kidnapper? Did those other two kidnap this Hinata kid by luring him in with ice cream? Was _she_ the next victim cause they lured her in too?? She has _got_ to get the hell out of here and call the police! And she has to rescue these innocent – well, except maybe Oikawa – children too! She clenched her fist tight; dammit, employee B at Shira Comics could fight too!

Yachi jumped up and startled the two little boys, startling them even more when she grabbed both of their hands and quickly began to make a run for it.

“My volleyball!” Oikawa cried and squirmed out of her grasp to run back to the table while Yachi panicked.

“Are you going to help me find the Great King now?” Hinata asked, eyes bright and excited.

“Er, I-well I suppose-“

“Noya! She’s gonna help me find the Great King!” Hinata shouted and Yachi’s head whirled around. The kidnappers were walking back inside! The smaller one grinned a smile that looked 10000 times intimidating to Yachi and 0 times intimidating to everyone else around her.

“Really? Great!” he said and Yachi turned, yanking Hinata and snatched up Oikawa, screaming a battle cry as she darted out of the ice cream parlor. The faint shouting behind her drowned in her own screams while Hinata screamed beside her in excitement and Oikawa whined in annoyance on how the both of them needed to shut up.

This _so_ wasn’t how Yachi wanted her night to be.

* * *

 

Asahi stood there, confused and dumbfounded as to what happened in the past five minutes. First Tanaka gave his spiel of how a little child managed to make a grown man into his slave and buy ice cream for him, then watch a hysterical girl pretty much kidnap the two kids they _should_ have taken to the police immediately. Shouldn’t they go after her? She _was_ a stranger (but then again, so were they and all three of them lured two children away from their guardians). Asahi seriously wanted to go home and treat this migraine that was seriously beginning to build behind his eyes, giving a tired glance over to his boyfriend that was standing there with his arms crossed.

“. . .He’s such a damn cute kid,” Noya spoke with a grin and looked up at Asahi. “Asahi, I want us to have a baby.”

“ _What??_ ”

“I’m not babysitting them. Tonight made me realize I kind of hate kids,” Tanaka grumbled, looking at all the ice cream on the table left behind and, like his money, gone to waste.

“H-Hold on, w-who said we were having a baby-”

“Come on big guy, let’s get some ice cream. You coming along, Ryuu?”

“Better hanging out with you guys than some snot-nosed kid.”

* * *

 

Daichi didn’t even try to hold back the absolute glee he had when he saw Tobio sitting in the plastic chairs along the wall inside the police department. Neither did he hold back the delighted embrace he gave Tobio in ‘I’m so glad that you’re not dead/kidnapped/not in any danger’ fashion. Course, Tobio just awkwardly stood there, looking around embarrassed and waiting until Daichi pulled himself together.

“Where’s your brother?” Daichi asked Tobio and the boy blinked.

“You mean you haven’t found him yet? Or Hinata?”

“Hinata _was_ with my friend, but he must have wandered off. Where did you last see Tooru?”

“Literally the moment we crashed into those trashcans and he ran off after his volleyball that the car thief threw down the street. I tried to look for him but-” Tobio paused, noticing that Suga was there behind them and only watching the two of them with a smile. Tobio pointed a finger at Suga with a raised eyebrow. “What’s he doing here?” Tobio asked and Daichi smacked his hand down from pointing while Suga approached and held out his hand.

“It’s nice to finally meet one of the famous kids Daichi has lost. I’m Sugawara Koushi, but you can call me Suga,” Suga introduced and Tobio stared at his hand before he looked at Daichi.

“Who is he? Your boyfriend?” Tobio blurted out and Daichi gave a less-loving slap to the back of Tobio’s head, face beginning to flush red.

“No! He’s just helping me find you three! Don’t be rude and shake his hand!” Daichi barked and Tobio shook Suga’s hand, still looking at the boy with furrowed eyebrows.

“But didn’t we drive to Karasuno’s so you could flirt with him-”

“I went to Karasuno’s to get you three _pizza_. He’s _not_ my boyfriend and I’m _not_ flirting with him.”

“He’s not your boyfriend? How you keep blushing around him, it really fooled me,” Ennoshita commented from behind his desk and Daichi shot the man a glare. He didn’t need two more people getting into his non-existent love life with Suga, Kuroo was already enough. Suga gave a small laugh and waved it off.

“We’re not dating. He’s just a friend,” Suga stated and looked to Daichi expectantly like Daichi was supposed to confess something right then and there and Daichi quickly looked away. He gave a nervous cough and adjusted the collar of his shirt from the sudden temperature jump in the room.

“Yeah. Friends. _Anyways_ , Tobio, do you know where they might be? Hinata must be somewhere downtown near the movie theater since I doubt he can get very far. But what about Tooru? Do you know what are his favorite things or places he might try to go to?”

Tobio shrugged, sticking hands into his pockets. “He likes girls?”

“We ruled out a brothel,” Suga quipped and Tobio rubbed the back of his head.

“He likes games, but only if you let him win so he can rub it in your face.”

“We already went to an arcade. Hinata _was_ there, but he left with my friend to the movies and Tooru wasn’t around,” Daichi said and Tobio sighed, racking his brain for something _else_ his brother likes that could give away his location.

“. . .He likes aliens?”

“Tobio, where do you think he would go if he liked aliens? Outer space?” Daichi asked flatly and Tobio frowned and crossed his arms.

“Well don’t ask me. Ask your boyfriend where he thinks they might be.”

“ _He’s not my boyfriend!_ ” Daichi yelled and Ennoshita gave a loud shush in their direction. Daichi bit his lower lip, mumbling an apology for raising his voice before Ennoshita glanced at the clock.

“There’s a planetarium on the outskirts of downtown that still might be open if you go. There’s also a geeky comic book store that sells alien figurines and UFO junk downtown inside the mall. It’s flashy enough to catch a kid’s eye, if that helps anything,” Ennoshita explained and gave a grin. “There’s an ice cream parlor near by the mall, if you find the kids then maybe you can have yourself an ice cream date with your _not_ -boyfriend.”

It’s official, this day could very well be the most embarrassing day of Daichi’s life. Suga nodded his head and turned to look at Tobio. “Does he like the planetarium?”

“Our best bet is the comic book store. He doesn’t read comics, but he’d like those figurines,” Tobio said and Suga clenched his fist with a grin.

“Alright! Let’s hurry over there before they get the chance to run off again,” he said and grabbed Daichi’s hand. “Thanks for the suggestion!” he shouted out to Ennoshita and Ennoshita responded back with a wave and a grin.

“Good luck you three!” he shouted back, Suga pulling Daichi out the front door and to the car with Tobio following close behind. Tobio raised an eyebrow at the two older teens, noticing how Suga had gave Daichi’s hand a little squeeze before he separated and went to the driver’s seat. Tobio moved next to Daichi, opening the door as he was about to get in.

“When are you going to stop beating around the bush and tell him you like him?” Tobio asked bluntly and Daichi shot him a look.

“You’re fourteen. Don’t even lecture me about my love life,” Daichi said and Tobio scoffed, climbing into the backseat of the car and buckled his seatbelt.

“Just saying, we wouldn’t be in this predicament if you would have just told him right away-”

“We wouldn’t be in this predicament if you three would have just _stayed home_ like I asked you-”

“No fighting in the car, boys,” Suga said and both Daich and Tobio clamped their lips shut, turning to look away and mumbled a ‘Sorry’ in response. Suga hummed, turning on the ignition and put the car in drive. “Now, off to that comic store!”

* * *

 

“Welcome to Shiratorizawa Comics! How may I help-”

“ _Mr. Takedaaaaaa._ ”

Takeda paused in his greeting to see his employee Yachi Hitoka standing at the entrance with two children under her arms and tears coming down from her eyes.

“Ah, Yachi. What’s wrong? I’m pretty sure the world isn’t ending today.”

“I-I just went to get ice cream and then gangsters came and I needed to save the kids and then the _police_ were parked down the street and there could have been a shoot-off and I didn’t know what to _dooo_ -”

“Ah. Michimiya brought some cookies from home and left them in the breakroom. Would you want one?”

“Yes please,” Yachi said rather exhausted and Takeda nodded, watching as she placed the children down and wearily walked to the back of the store. Takeda then looked at the kids, one had brown hair and was holding a volleyball while the other had redhair and was growing very entranced by the spinning light that was on the shelf behind Takeda. Takeda was good with kids, he could handle these two until Yachi calmed down so he could get a clearer story out of her and decide what to do.

He walked around the counter and crouched down to their level. “Hello, I’m Takeda. What’s your names?”

“Hinata Shoyou. And this is my friend Oikawa Tooru. We’re looking for the Great King! Did you see him?”

“‘Great King’? Hmm, I’m afraid not. But listen, you’re welcome to look around the store. I’ll be right back, I’m just going to check on Yachi for a second, okay?” Takeda said and Hinata nodded his head while Oikawa just shrugged. Takeda ruffled the both of their heads for good measure before he turned and walked towards the back. Cute kids, honestly what could Yachi have gotten so flustered about that involved them?

* * *

 

“Tch, I’m bored,” Oikawa whined and glanced out the door to the mall outside. “Let’s go to the candy store, Hinata.”

“But we’re supposed to wait right here, aren’t we? Besides, what if they know where the Great King went?” Hinata asked, little fists clenched. He was starting to get tired and he was starting to miss Daichi and his Mommy. And the Great King, Hinata definitely missed the Great King. He rubbed his eyes and gave a little pout. “I wanna go home. I’m not having fun anymore, Oikawa.”

“What do you want me to do about it?” Oikawa asked with an upturned nose and Hinata’s hands moved to clutch the sleeve of Oikawa’s jacket.

“Let’s find the Great King and Daichi and go home. I wanna go home,” Hinata mumbled and Oikawa ‘tched’.

“Don’t be a baby, my big brother doesn’t like babies,” Oikawa said with extra venom and Hinata rubbed his eyes.

“I’m not a baby!”

“Oh? Then. . .why don’t you get me that alien figure over there. _Then_ we’ll leave,” Oikawa said with a smile and pointed at a figurine that was on the second shelf behind the counter. Hinata gulped, looking over at his friend who only gave a shrug, before looking back at the figurine. If it meant they would leave and find the Great King and go home, then he’ll do it. Hinata sucked in a big breath and ran behind the counter, struggling to climb up on one of the stools against the wall and under the first shelf.

Oikawa, meanwhile, decided to preoccupy himself with the candies that were in his reach near the trading cards. Oikawa took the UFO chocolate, the alien peanut butter crunch bars, the marshmallow moon pies, and shoved them all into the pockets of his jacket and pants.

“Oikawa! I can’t reach it! It’s too high!”

“Hinata~ Tobio doesn’t like whiners either,” Oikawa sing-songed and Hinata bit his lower lip, straining even harder to try and reach the figurine. The tips of his fingers barely pushed against the bottom of the first shelf when Hinata heard the jingle of the store’s door opening. And when he turned, there stood a police officer staring straight at him.

“Oi! What are you doing?!” the officer barked and Hinata jumped, losing his balance and fell, toppling the stool over in the process. He landed with a good thud, a loud cry coming from his lips and tears swelled from his eyes, Oikawa immediately running over to yank Hinata up to his feet and drag him away just as the officer tried to make a grab for the both of them. “Get back here!” the officer shouted and Oikawa stuck his tongue out as he pushed open the door with his arm, volleyball tucked underneath and candy spilling out of his pockets.

“Bleh! No one’s gonna like you if you’re such a mean cop!” Oikawa chastised, darting out with the sobbing Hinata in tow before the cop even had the time to react. The brown haired child looked down at the smaller child he pulled along, Hinata crying and snot running down his nose.

“I-I wanna go home. I w-want the Great King and I w-want my M-Mommy,” Hinata hiccupped and Oikawa quickly hid the both of them behind a planter, seeing that the pesky cop had tried to follow them. Luckily, he was too busy shouting into his handset to even notice that the children gave him the slip. Silly cop, Oikawa hoped he didn’t hurt himself by trying so hard. Hinata raised his sleeve to blow into, the boys emerging from their hiding place a few moments later when Oikawa was sure the coast was clear. Oikawa ‘hmphed’ and stuck his nose up. “I _guess_ we’ll go find Tobio and Daichi so he can take us home,” Oikawa said like it was _such_ an inconvenience for them to be lost.

“B-But what about Daichi’s car?”

“We’ll tell him when we see him. Come on already,” Oikawa said with an annoyed pout, pulling Hinata towards the exit of the mall. Hinata rubbed at his eyes and sniffled, cold night air hitting his face and drying away any tears remaining on his cheeks.

He’s had enough fun for one night.


	5. don't you forget about me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bokuto Kotaro updated their status:  
> @Akaashi Keiji coming to see you bae! First off, FOOOOOOOOD!!!! w/ @Sawamura Daichi’s kids
> 
> or
> 
> the chapter where everything goes right and Daichi raises his fist like Bender from "The Breakfast Club"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MY STUPID COMPUTER DELETED THIS STORY AGAIN UGHH *shakes fist at the sky*
> 
> Anyways sorry for the long update because this is the longest chapter/final chapter and I had to rewrite it cause my computer crashes a lot and deletes stories which sucks. So this might not be as good as it should but idk.
> 
> Title comes from "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds (of course).
> 
> I think Bokuto came out more like a cool big brother than goofy best friend *fails at characterization* OTL
> 
> THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR ALL THE SUPPORT THIS STORY WAS SO MUCH FUN TO WRITE!!!

“I’m so sorry about this! I just left for a few minutes and didn’t think something like _this_ would happen-”

“It’s all my fault! I should have taken them to the police right away and now they’re out in the city where those yakuza could kidnap them again or worse and-”

Daichi quickly raised his hands to get the manager and employee of Shiratorizawa Comics to _calm down_. Honestly, Tooru and Hinata were _his_ kids and he wasn’t about to break down into a sobbing mess like these two were (though with how late it was starting to get, he was pretty damn close). Suga crossed his arms in a huff while Tobio looked at the pilfered candy display. The officer that was there was roaming the mall still, though Daichi doubted that Tooru would stick around someplace if he was honestly done with it.

“They seem to be moving more and more towards the heart of downtown. Where else could two little kids go?” Suga asked and Daichi ran a hand through his hair.

“I honestly have no idea. I just know that it’s 10:36 and I’m totally fucked,” he mumbled and rubbed his face. Maybe they should just call the cops and alert the Oikawas and Hinata’s parents. Daichi was pretty sure that deranged mothers searching for their young would be a hell of a lot more efficient than he was being. Sure, he’d lose his job of being official and _extremely_  well-paid babysitter to Tooru and Tobio and possibly never being hired as a babysitter ever again, not to mention the unavoidable punishment his mom was going to give him when she finds out what happened to the car _and_ how irresponsible Daichi was with someone else’s children.

Fuck, fuck, _fuck_.

“Um, I know this might be a bad time to mention this, but. . .our candy display is a little bit emptier than I remember and I think one of them took some candy from the store. . .and well-” the manager started and Daichi sighed, already reaching into his wallet to hand over ten dollars.

“I’m really sorry about what happened!” the manager apologized, his blonde employee only giving a dying whine in agreement while Daichi nodded.

“It’s alright, we’re sorry for troubling you so much,” Daichi said with a respectable bow and turned to look at Suga and Tobio, the three boys exiting out the comic book store and into the mall.

“What are we going to do now?” Tobio asked and Daichi shrugged.

“I have literally no idea where else they could be.”

“. . .Maybe heading towards my dad’s office?” Tobio suggested and both of the elder teens turned to look at the younger boy with wide eyes. Tobio blinked, then scratched the back of his head. “Well, it’s not like he knows where _we_ are, so he’s not going to be looking for us. If he’s honestly tired and wants to go home, then he’ll probably try to get in touch with our parents first.”

“You mean he’s going to actually _snitch_ that I took you three out in the city and lost you?! He said he wouldn’t tell!” Daichi exclaimed.

“Daichi, it’s _Tooru_.”

“Besides, he’s a little kid. It’s natural for them to want their parents if they’re lost,” Suga said and Daichi groaned.

“The company banquet isn’t _at_ your dad’s office, is it?” Daichi asked and Tobio nodded his head ‘yes’, eliciting another groan from Daichi’s lips.

“Well, where is it? Maybe we can find them before they reach the office and get you all home,” Suga suggested and Daichi looked over at him.

“What about my car? I’m down to fifty bucks on hand and the banks are closed.”

“We’ll worry about that obstacle when we get to it,” Suga said, not missing a beat in the slightest as he turned to Tobio. “What’s the address to your dad’s office?”

“I. . .don’t really know it that well. B-But neither does Tooru. We’ve only been up there a few times. All I remember is that Fukurodani is directly across from it.”

“You mean that music store with the obnoxious neon owl sign?” Daichi asked and Tobio nodded his head. Daichi scoffed; it figures that he would know that area, he’s had to drive down to the music store for Bokuto and Kuroo every time some hit CD came out (and let them ‘borrow’ some money for the CD, of course). Suga gave Daichi a little nudge in the shoulder.

“Then let’s go get our kids!”

“ _Our_ kids?” Daichi asked with a raised eyebrow and slightly tinting cheeks.

“Well how long I’ve spent looking for them with you, they might as well be my kids too,” Suga said with a shrug and Daichi nodded his head.

“Yeah. . .I suppose you’re right about that-”

“So does that make you guys some married couple and Daichi’s the dad?” Tobio asked with that tone that sounded half ignorantly blunt and half deviously smug. Daichi smacked him in the back of the head, averting Suga’s kind gaze and tried to phase out Suga’s sweet little laugh that went along with it.

* * *

 

“Oikawa, I’m tired,” Hinata whimpered, clenching on the sleeve of the older boy tight. He was determined not to lose Tooru again, he didn’t want to get any more lost than they already were. Tooru only scoffed, failing in his eighth attempt of wriggling out of the little child’s grasp. It wasn’t Tooru’s fault that it was taking them so darn long to get to his daddy’s office. And it’s not Tooru’s fault that Tooru. . didn’t necessarily knew how to get to the office from where they were right now. He knew that the tacky owl shop was right across the street, but so far he has yet to see a large neon bird.

None of it was _his_ fault. It was all stupid Daichi’s fault. And Tobio’s fault too; he wasn’t sure what to blame his brother for just yet, but he was sure he’ll think of a reason later when he finds his parents.

“It’s dark.”

“ _Duh_ , it’s nighttime, Shrimpy.” Tooru only used the nickname when Hinata was starting to get annoying to him, usually as a sign for the little child to back off before Tooru decided to get particularly nasty. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anywhere Hinata _could_ go, so he only clung to Tooru’s sleeve tighter and whimpered louder.

“I want my Mommy. I’m hungry. I’m tired and it’s really dark and I’m scared,” Hinata cried and Tooru rubbed his nose. He wasn’t crying though. He was a big boy, not a little baby like Hinata. He wasn’t scared of the dark and he wasn’t lost. He had his volleyball and he knew how to fight if it came down to it, especially since it was _super_ easy to make that other adult practically his slave. Hinata tripped from following Tooru too close and landed on his knees, giving out a cry when he landed and Oikawa groaned.

“Stop crying!”

“I wanna go home!. . .a-and m-my tummy hurts,” Hinata stuttered and Oikawa rolled his eyes.

“It’s cause you’re hungry.”

“No. . .Oikawa, I have to go to the bathroom.”

Oikawa squawked, watching Hinata cross his legs in an attempt to hold it in. He wasn’t prepared for this! He can’t take care of a little kid that was stupid like Hinata, what was he even supposed to _do_? Stupid Daichi for leaving Tooru in this predicament! He didn’t want to take care and watch after Hinata! “O-Oikawa, why are you crying?” Hinata asked and Tooru wiped at his eyes in frustration.

“I’m not crying! Shut up! Come on!” Tooru shouted, grabbing Hinata by his hand and yanked him up to his feet. Tooru glanced around, most of the buildings on the street were closed with the lights off, save for a Laundromat on the corner. _It’ll have to do_ , Tooru thought, quickly pulling the little boy behind him to the building and through the doors. There were only two people in the building, two teenagers in fact. One of them must have been an employee since he was pushing a cart of soap and detergent towards the back of the Laundromat. The other teenager with weirdly colored hair. . .was just in his underwear. And reading the comics section of the newspaper.

Ew, why did Tooru have to pick the Laundromat where the weirdoes were?

“Why can’t you wash one thing at a time so that way you’re _partially_ clothed?”

“Dude, that’ll be _way_ too much money and time wasted.”

“It’s not my fault you and Lev were dumbasses that thought pouring beer in a bubble machine would make it into a _beer_ -bubble machine and got junk all over your clothes,” the employee said, reaching to put the soap on the shelf. But because of his short stature, it didn’t look like he was making much progress, nor was he going to ask for help either.

Hinata broke away from Tooru’s grasp, running over with an awkward gait to the employee and shouted, startling the shorter boy and making him spill soap onto the floor. He cursed loud – these teenagers obviously didn’t care if there were little kids in the same area – and turned to see Hinata doing a funny little dance.

“I have to use the bathroom!” Hinata shouted and the boy blinked.

“Uh. . .okay? It’s down the hall?” he said confused and Hinata ran, not even asking if someone could go with him. He must have _really_ needed to go. Tooru ‘tched’, Hinata always got those ‘nervous runs’, there wasn’t _anything_ to be worried about. They _weren’t_ lost and as soon as he was done, Oikawa was going to find his daddy’s office and go home. The employee turned to look at Tooru and approached him. “Are your parents outside? Do they need help bringing some laundry in?”

Tooru crossed his arms and turned his nose up. “We just need to use the bathroom and we’re leaving. That’s it.”

The boy frowned at Tooru’s attitude, but just scoffed and waved a hand away. “Whatever, just don’t touch anything,” he said and went back to begin cleaning up the spill on the floor. The half-naked teen tore out a page of the newspaper that wasn’t comics and began to fold himself a paper hat. Tooru eyed him, tapping his foot impatiently and began to bounce his volleyball against the tile floor. The noise caught the boy’s attention, since he looked over at Tooru and pointed at the ball with a big grin.

“Hey, you play volleyball?”

“I’m the best,” Tooru bragged, then turned away like the boy was beneath him and didn’t deserve to hear how awesome he was. The boy hummed, returning back to folding his paper hat and Tooru cocked his head to the side. “Why are you in your underwear?”

“That’s a really personal question,” the teen said and the employee shot him a look. “Kidding! But they’re in the wash. Word of advice from the wise, beer and machines do not mix,” the boy said and Tooru raised an eyebrow.

“Can I have a paper hat too?”

The boy tapped his chin. “Hmm, I don’t know. These are for only _really_ hardcore people.”

“I’m hardcore!”

“Prove it,” the boy said with a grin and Tooru bit the inside of his cheek, sucking in a big breath and looked the boy dead straight in the eye.

“Fuck,” Tooru said proudly and the employee nearly dropped the soap again while the boy laughed.

“Bokuto!”

“What?! I didn’t tell him to say that!”

“I swear, why am I putting up with you tonight?”

“Because Lev’s your boo and my bro, Yaku. It’s your _duty_ to ‘Mom’ me like you do him,” the boy, Bokuto, had replied and taken off his hat to give to Tooru, who claimed his prize with a big grin. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Hinata slowly padding over to them, pulling his pants up and rubbing his eye with his fist. He went to the chair next to the one Bokuto was sitting in and climbed up, looking over at Tooru and the hat Tooru was wearing with confused eyes.

“Where’d you get that hat?” Hinata asked and Tooru smirked.

“I got it cause I’m more hardcore than you.”

“No fair! I can be hardcore too! I want one too! Can I have a hat? Can I?”

“Sure little guy,” Bokuto said with a grin and Tooru frowned.

“He didn’t have to prove if he was hardcore,” Tooru said with narrowed eyes and Bokuto rubbed his chin.

“Hm, true. Alright little dude, how hardcore are you?”

Hinata bit his lower lip and puffed his cheeks in thought, eyes brightening when he apparently thought of something. “I can stick four raisins up my nose!”

“That _is_ pretty hardcore,” Bokuto said in appreciation, Yaku only scowling as he walked past with some laundry baskets.

“That’s disgusting. Stop encouraging bad behavior,” Yaku scolded and Bokuto pouted before looking at the two children, pulling out another paper to start work on Hinata’s hat.

“So what are two hardcore kids like you doing out so late?” Bokuto asked and Hinata turned in his chair, letting out a sad sigh.

“We got lost from Daichi and we lost the Great King. . .Oikawa, what are we gonna do?”

“Hinata, stop being annoyingggg,” Tooru whined, taking one of the comic pages to (not) read and thoroughly ignore Hinata. Bokuto looked down at Hinata in surprise, folding the paper hat with quick ease.

“Daichi? Sawamura Daichi? Is he babysitting you guys?”

Hinata nodded his head ‘yes’ and a big grin grew on Bokuto’s face. “So _you’re_ the kids he lost? I thought Kuroo was just joking but _man_.”

“You know Kuroo?” Hinata asked and Bokuto smiled.

“He’s my _best_ bro.”

“Kenma’s my best friend! He’s cool!” Hinata boasted and Bokuto raised an eyebrow.

“Oh ho? I bet if you met _my_ boyfriend, you’d think he was ten times cooler than Kenma,” Bokuto bragged and Hinata’s eyes widened.

“The Great King is going to be my boyfriend! You can meet him and see how cool he is!” Hinata exclaimed with little fists clenched, but then his shoulders drooped. “But I don’t know where to find him,” he said sadly and Bokuto hummed.

“Well. . .I’m going to head over to my boyfriend’s job after this. He’s smart, he should know where your Great King is,” Bokuto explained and Hinata’s gave a loud shout.

“Really?! Then let’s go! Let’s go!” Hinata shouted and Bokuto laughed while Tooru only hummed in thought. It seemed like Hinata doesn’t want to go home just yet. Good, Tooru wasn’t done having fun yet.

* * *

 

**Bokuto Kotaro updated their status:**

**@Akaashi Keiji coming to see you bae! First off, FOOOOOOOOD!!!! w/ @Sawamura Daichi’s kids**

**Uploaded 1 picture**

**Akaashi Keiji commented: why do you have children with you?**

**Kozume Kenma commented: please call daichi right away**

**Kuroo Tetsurou commented: how the fuck did u find them??????**

* * *

 

“Hey Suga, your phone beeped,” Daichi commented, looking down at the phone flashing in the cupholder. Suga hummed, turning down the street Tobio instructed him to go down.

“Is it just a text?” Suga asked and Daichi picked up the phone, pushing the home button just to see what came up in the notification screen. It was just a Facebook status update from Bokuto - he has Bokuto friended on Facebook too? Why couldn’t Daichi even ask just to friend Suga on _Facebook_ , ugh he was so lame - but his eyes widened when he saw just what Bokuto had written.

“Stop the car!” Daichi shouted suddenly and Suga quickly swerved to the curb and pulled over, him and Tobio looking at Daichi with raised eyebrows and confused looks. “Quick, unlock your phone and go to Facebook,” Daichi said urgently, practically shoving the phone in Suga’s hands. Suga fumbled with the phone a bit, putting in his passcode to unlock the phone and the Facebook app opened up immediately to Bokuto’s post. Attached was a picture of Bokuto, Tooru and Hinata, the children wearing newspaper hats and all three of them contently eating Happy Meals from McDonald’s. Daichi partially felt like crying, the picture was uploaded very recently so maybe, just _maybe_. . .

Daichi pulled his phone out of his pocket and quickly dialed Bokuto’s number, knee bobbing up and down in nerves while Tobio and Suga watched him carefully.

“ _Yo!_ ” Bokuto’s voice chimed on the other line and Daichi’s heart jumped.

“Bokuto!” Daichi screamed.

“ _DAICHI!_ ” Bokuto screamed right back and very faintly in the background, Daichi heard a child chirp out ‘HINATA!’. Oh god, Hinata was still with him. _Hinata actually stayed put for once_. Daichi pulled his phone away and pushed the speaker button for Suga and Tobio to hear, his heart beating frantically in excitement.

“Bokuto, where’s Hinata? Is he next to you? Where’s Tooru? Are they both right there? Put them on the phone-”

“ _Whoa, dude. I thought we were having a shouting contest and now you went all ’20 Questions’ on me-_ “

“ _Bokuto_ ,” Daichi said sternly and he heard Bokuto click his tongue.

“ _Little dude, Daichi wants to talk to you._ ”

Daichi could hear a cry of ‘UWAAAH’ before there was some fumbling around with the phone.

“ _I’M SORRY I BROKED YOUR CAR, DAICHI! I HAD TO SAVE THE GREAT KING! DON’T BE MAD AT MEEEEEEEE!_ ” Hinata screeched, all three boys practically recoiling away from the device in Daichi’s hand. Tobio scowled.

“Oi! Don’t scream into the phone, idiot!” Tobio barked and the phone went silent on the other end.

“ _. . .Great King? Is that you? Y-You’re safe! YAYYYY! Are you hurt?! Where are you so I can come and get you?!_ ” Hinata asked and Tobio blushed.

“Don’t talk like _I’m_ the one that needs to be taken care of! I’m with Daichi and his boyfriend, they picked me up at the police station,” Tobio explained, Daichi flushing red at Tobio calling Suga his boyfriend _again_. Suga didn’t even looked phased by it, Daichi opening his mouth to retort when he heard Hinata make a confused noise.

“ _Daichi has a boyfriend? Is it that boy he went to see?_ ”

“ _I knew Daichi liked boys_ ,” Tooru’s obnoxiously smug voice piped in and Daichi felt a vein pop.

“ _You got Suga to be your boyfriend?! I can’t believe our little Daichi is going to become a man! Maybe you’ll finally lose your virginity!”_ Bokuto congratulated. Daichi made a loud croaking noise and scrambled to turn the speaker off before Bokuto could say anything else stupid, Tobio hiding his snicker behind his hand and Suga awkwardly turned away to look out the window at the passing cars.

“I put the phone on speaker, you _dick_!” Daichi hissed into the phone.

“. . . _Whoops?_ ”

“And don’t talk about that stuff around the kids!”

“ _Aw, they don’t know what I’m saying. It’s okay!_ ” Bokuto said and Daichi pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Bokuto, where are you guys right now so I can come pick you up?”

“ _We’re heading to Akaashi’s job right now. He had to stay late and help out with some car. I guess some whackjob crashed into trashcans and totally messed up the front bumper and tires, **and** ditched the car too,_” Bokuto explained and Daichi blinked before he slapped a hand to his face.

“It’s _my_ car. What’s the address to the auto shop Akaashi works at?” Daichi asked, reaching into the cupholder to find that slip of paper Yamaguchi had wrote down the name of the shop where his car was.

“ _Uh, I think it’s 263-1 Aoba Seijoh. What happened to your car? I thought you just ran it into Suga’s mailbox,_ ” Bokuto asked. The address he just said matched the one written down on the paper and Daichi handed the paper to Suga.

“We’re going to meet them here,” Daichi explained and Suga nodded, pulling back out into the street and began to head towards the destination. Daichi sighed and leaned back in his chair. “It’s a long story.”

“ _You know I’m going to bug you until you tell me. Might as well accept your fate now and spill it_.”

“Later.”

“ _Hey, did you ask Suga out yet?_ ”

Daichi bit his lower lip, turning away so hopefully Suga won’t hear his mumbles all that well. “No, not yet.”

“ _Dude, seriously? When are you going to do it?_ ”

“Well I would have _wanted_ to ask him out on better circumstances-”

“ _Once you guys get here, Suga’s going to leave and you would have **blown** it. And who knows when you’re going to have the balls to even talk to him again. What are you going to do? Run over his mailbox twice?_”

“What are you, my love coach?”

“ _Hell yeah I am! Let’s be real, me and Akaashi are kinda perfect, aren’t we? Who **better** to get love advice from than the master, right?_” Bokuto boasted. To be honest, Daichi really wasn’t even sure how or _why_ Akaashi started dating Bokuto and Kenma started dating Kuroo. _Both_ couples seemed really weird together and he wasn’t sure if Bokuto was qualified to be giving his ‘awesome’ love advice. “ _You only got one more shot, Daichi. Don’t fuck it up._ ”

“Don’t _curse_ around the kids!”

“ _I **told** you they don’t know what I’m talking about!_”

“They’re three and six year olds, not idiots,” Daichi said grimly and Bokuto snorted.

“ _Alright, alright. We’ll see you there, okay? I’ll take care of them!_ ” Bokuto said proudly and hung up before Daichi could even say anything else. He wasn’t sure how to feel about Bokuto watching Hinata and Tooru on the way there. Out of all the people Daichi had come across tonight, Bokuto was the person _most likely_ to lose children on his watch. He glanced at the clock on the dashboard, the small numbers reading 11:15pm.

“How fast can you drive?” Daichi asked Suga and Suga smirked.

“You’re looking at Karasuno’s fastest delivery boy,” he said with a grin and gripped the steering wheel tight. “Hang on to something, I’ll get us down there in five minutes flat.”

* * *

 

When Suga said five minutes, it felt more like five _seconds_. Five seconds of sharp turns, speeding though the intersections, and Daichi almost confessing to Suga in fear that he might not live another _second_ if Suga continued to drive like this. Behind him, he could hear Tobio screaming and clutching at the back of his seat, Suga focused on nothing but the road as he made another wildly sharp turn.

Suga turned the car into a gated parking lot, practically empty and no cars for Suga to accidentally swerve into. He put the car in park and turned off the ignition, looking over at Daichi with a smile.

“Are you okay?” he asked and Daichi swallowed, trying to remember how to breathe and how to get his heart to slow down for just a second. He only gave a simple nod, Suga turning to look in the backseat of the car where Tobio was holding his head. “How about you? Are you alright?”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Tobio mumbled and Suga sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

“Yeah, Ukai doesn’t let me drive the cars for delivery anymore since I’m a bit reckless behind the wheel. But I’m a whole lot better on a scooter,” Suga explained and Tobio covered his mouth as if he was holding in a barf. To be honest, Daichi felt like he was going to be sick too, looking up wearily at the dimly lit neon lights above the front door. It was definitely the same place that he knew Akkashi worked at, Daichi feeling slightly better at the thought of his friend’s boyfriend fixed up his car for him. Maybe he could work out some sort deal just for now, at least.

The three boys climbed out of the car and headed towards the garage entrance that was cracked open, Daichi crouching down to peer inside. Sure enough, running around his fixed car were Hinata and Tooru with Bokuto chasing after them with a welding mask. Daichi slipped through underneath with his eyes wide and his heart beating excitedly, Suga and Tobio following. He found the kids and his car! He wasn’t going to get killed by angry parents tonight!

“Hinata! Tooru!” Daichi shouted and the children stopped running, Bokuto narrowly missing a shelf due to still wearing the welding mask. Hinata’s eyes brightened, breaking into a sprint and ran right past Daichi’s open arms for a hug to Tobio’s legs to cling on.

“The Great King! I found you!”

“ _We_ found _you_ ,” Tobio explained and Hinata turned to look over his shoulder at Bokuto.

“Bokuto, this is the Great King! Isn’t he cool?! He’s going to be my boyfriend and we’re gonna go to movies like Kenma and Kuroo and kiss and-”

“S-Shut up! No we’re not!” Tobio sputtered out as Bokuto lifted off the mask to look at him clearly.

“You’re the ‘Great King’? You’re kinda starting off young, aren’t you?” he asked and Tobio’s face flared red, pushing Hinata off of him to yell and snap that he was _not_ his boyfriend. Tooru walked over with his volleyball in his hands, eying Suga with a raised eyebrow.

“So you _are_ Daichi’s boyfriend?” Tooru asked and Suga gave a nervous little laugh.

“We’re just friends, actually,” Suga explained and Tooru scoffed.

“Are you stupid or something? It’s _obvious_ that he likes you-”

“Oi! Stop being rude! Apologize!” Daichi immediately cut off, forcing Tooru’s head into a bow with his face flushed red. Hinata finally realized that there _were_ other people Tobio arrived with, bouncing over to Daichi with worried eyes.

“Daichi! You didn’t lose your version-nee-tee did you?! He didn’t, did he?!” Hinata asked Suga urgently and Suga stifled his laugh.

“Er, no?”

Hinata nodded his head and looked at Daichi proudly. “Good! He already lost us and his car, he doesn’t need to lose anything else tonight!”

Daichi was going to _murder_ Bokuto. He turned to look around, seeing that Akaashi was approaching with another mechanic following behind him. Bokuto immediately bounded over to Akaashi in large strides like some lost puppy, his boyfriend paying him no attention whatsoever as he approached Daichi with a raised eyebrow.

“Daichi, is this _really_ your car?” Akaashi asked and Daichi nodded his head ‘yes’. He rubbed the back of his head. “I knew it looked familiar, but I didn’t understand how someone like you could have let something like _this_ happen,” Akaashi replied and Daichi sighed.

“I know, it’s a long story-”

“The kids already told us when Bokuto arrived with them,” Akaashi said and Daichi shot a look at Bokuto, who raised his hands up in innocence and gave a cheeky smile.

“Hey, _you_ weren’t going to tell me. Besides, I had to give Kuroo the full story, he was worried about you dude. And I told Lev, cause he _might_ have been worried about you if he would have known about it or something,” Bokuto said and Daichi slapped his hand over his forehead. So basically, everyone in Daichi’s social circle learned about how he lost three kids and his car in the city on a Friday night. He just hoped that it wouldn’t make its way back to the Oikawas or his mother.

The other mechanic stepped forward and crossed his arms. “Tragic story aside, do you have the money?” he asked and Daichi bit his lower lip, hoping that he only had Akaashi to convince to let the money slide. He reached into his wallet and pulled out the fifty dollars and handed it over, the mechanic taking it and counting it over before frowning. “You’re $150 short.”

“I know, but that’s all I have right now and the banks are closed and I’m supposed to get paid _after_ the kids’ parents are home so. . .” Daichi gripped his hand into a fist, “I’ll pay you back, I promise! I just _really_ need to get these kids home and my car back!”

The mechanic didn’t look too convinced Daichi was going to follow through with his promise, Daichi beginning to nervously chew his lip as he tried to think of another way to convince him. Hinata stepped forward, taking off his paper hat and dug in his pocket.

“Mr. Turnip Head!”Hinata shouted and the man blushed, looking down at the little child holding out a crumpled five dollar bill and the paper hat Bokuto made him. “It’s my fault Daichi’s car is broke, let me pay for the rest of it! I got this money from Kuroo and this hat is really cool so it should be worth a lot of money!”

‘Mr. Turnip Head’ looked at Akaashi in a ‘are you kidding me?’ expression and Akaashi shrugged. Hinata turned wildly, snatching Tooru’s volleyball out of his hands in a flash and then held it up. “What about this?! This is a cool volleyball!”

“That’s mine, stupid Hinata!” Tooru shouted and Hinata tossed it in the air to spike and demonstrate how cool it was. Unfortunately with Hinata’s wild and crazily powered spike, the ball ricocheted off the wall and slammed into a desk of power tools with some of them crashing to the floor. The mechanic gave a startled squawk and Daichi wanted to pull his hair out. Suga stepped forward quickly and patted Hinata’s head, ushering him back over to Tobio while the mechanic fumed and Akaashi tried to get him to calm down.

“Um, I have fifty dollars,” he offered, reaching into his wallet to pull out the money to hand over, “so that means all he owes is $100. . .and whatever damage might have occurred from the volleyball. Listen, Daichi is a really dependable person. He may have not been his best tonight, but you could trust him to follow up on his promise to pay you back,” Suga explained and Daichi gulped, turning away embarrassed.

“Dude, you need to marry him,” Bokuto murmured and Daichi elbowed him in the gut, face heating immediately.

“He’s right, Kindachi. Can we let it slide until tomorrow morning?” Akaashi asked with a tired expression and Kindachi rubbed his forehead, digging into his pocket and pulled out Daichi’s keys. He tossed the kyes over to Daichi and took the money from Suga.

“Fine, fine. Just get these kids out of here before something else gets broken,” Kindachi said, looking at Tooru, Hinata, and Bokuto. Akaashi nodded, taking the welding mask off of Bokuto to put it away while Daichi clutched the keys to his chest in victory. He turned to look at Suga, the boy only watching him with kind eyes and a warm smile that made Daichi’s chest swell up inside.

“Thank you for _everything_ you’ve done tonight. I’m pretty sure I would be still in the city looking for the kids if you weren’t here,” Daichi said and Suga gave a nonchalant wave.

“No problem! It was fun hanging out with you. We really should do it again sometime,” Suga said and Daichi blinked. This was it, this was supposed to be his big moment. But Tobio stepped forward and pointed at the clock.

“It’s 11:40. We have only a little bit more than an hour til our parents come home. Don’t want to rush you or anything, but. . .”

“Fuck,” Hinata said before Daichi could even mumble it, Daichi’s eyes widening in horror and he quickly pinched the child’s cheek.

“I told you don’t curse!” Daichi yelled and then looked at Suga apologetically, “I didn’t teach him that, I swear.”

“Of course you didn’t,” Suga said with a laugh and Daichi quickly grabbed Hinata and Tooru to place inside the car. He turned to Tobio, “Make sure they’re buckled in safely and get in,” Daichi said and then turned to Kindachi. “Thanks! I _promise_ I’ll bring the rest of the money first thing tomorrow morning when you open!”

Kindachi only waved him off, going to the garage door to open it so the car could drive out. Daichi looked over at Suga and Suga rubbed the back of his neck. “So I guess this is when we part ways, huh? Unless . .I’ll see you again?” Suga asked lightly and Daichi swallowed. He could do this, he could do this. Why the hell did Suga make him so nervous and scatterbrained and just so _embarrassingly_ infatuated with him?

“B-Be safe out there,” Daichi blurted out and Suga hummed, looking down at the ground before shrugging.

“Yeah, you too,” he said with a smile and Daichi nodded his head. He slowly backed towards his car and climbed in, giving one last wave at Suga, Bokuto and Akaashi before started the ignition and put the car in drive. The car rolled forward with ease, Daichi putting his foot on the gas pedal to quickly pull out of the garage and onto the streets heading home. Hopefully there wouldn’t be _too_ much traffic. If they were fast enough, Daichi might be able to get the kids home with teeth brushed and in bed before the Oikawas-

“That was it?” Hinata asked and Daichi looked in the rearview mirror at the child in his car seat.

“What do you mean?”

“You didn’t tell Suga you liked him. Isn’t that what you were supposed to do?” Hinata asked and Daichi bit his lower lip. There’s no way he could ask Suga out after a night like this happened, where Daichi was shown to be not only hazardous to his car and everything around it, but stupidly incompetent and panicky and a general burden for Suga to be dragged along to find kids _he_ should have been watching. He sighed, focusing on the road as he turned at an intersection towards the direction of the highway.

“I’ll tell him eventually.”

“But then tonight was completely worthless if you didn’t tell him! We got lost for nothing!” Hinata shouted and Daichi scoffed.

“He has a point,” Tobio agreed, Daichi knowing he must have _really_ screwed up if Tobio was going along with what Hinata was saying.

“Hey! We left my volleyball at the garage!” Tooru shouted and Daichi groaned.

“Tooru, I’ll tell Bokuto or Akaashi to give it to me tomorrow. I just need to get you kids home. How fast do your parents drive?” Daichi asked and Tobio shrugged.

“Pretty fast if they don’t think they’ll get caught,” Tobio said and Daichi swallowed. Does deviance run in the family? He shook his head. “Then I’ll have to drive just as fast,” he muttered and Tobio rubbed his head, already starting to feel sick. Hinata stuck his hands out in front of him, gripping an imaginary wheel and began to make engine noises while Tooru whined and moaned about his precious volleyball being in the hands of stupid Bokuto. Daichi couldn’t think about how he failed with Suga tonight, not when he had these three back in the car with them as they sped along down the highway with the city lights blurring by.

At least, not right now.

* * *

 

They arrived at the house at around 12:20, Daichi not seeing any expensive looking sports cars driving just as fast in their direction. Though, he didn’t know exactly how long he was going to get, heart beating frantic as he opened the front door and rushed the kids inside. The house still looked just as they left it, TV still running in the living room. Daichi switched on the lights and turned the TV off, picking up Hinata and looked down at Tooru.

“Tooru, brush your teeth. Tobio, get into your pajamas.”

“But I’m hungry still. And I want my volleyball.”

“ _Tomorrow_. Don’t tell your parents where it went either,” Daichi barked, carrying Hinata into the kitchen to quickly grab a box of cereal and hand it to the child. Tooru took the box with a raised eyebrow and looked at Daichi.

“But this has sugar in it-”

“ _Eat it_ ,” Daichi said darkly, running Hinata back upstairs to Tooru’s bedroom where he saw a baby blue backpack resting on the bed. Hinata squirmed out of Daichi’s grasp and adjusted his jacket.

“I can dress myself, Daichi! I’m a big boy!” Hinata said proudly and Daichi raised an eyebrow.

“Oh really?”

“Yeah! Go check on the Great King!” Hinata ordered and Daichi shook his head, leaving the bedroom and paused in the hallway. Something was starting to smell. . .like something was burning. . .

“TOORU!” Daichi shouted, almost falling down the stairs as he made a run for the kitchen. The child jumped back, Daichi running to stop the microwave and take out the burning bag of popcorn. Daichi threw it into the sink and immediately doused it with water, turning to look at the child with a dark look. “I _said_ eat the cereal.”

“I wanted popcorn!”

“Bedtime, _now_ ,” Daichi said, scooping the child up in his arms as well and turned off the sink. He carried Tooru up the stairs and to his bedroom, Hinata fumbling to get into his pajamas while Tobio set up the sleeping bag. Daichi sighed and put Tooru down, pulling Hinata’s shirt down over his head so the boy could get his arms into the sleeves.

“Can I sleep with the Great King tonight?” Hinata asked and Daichi hummed.

“Hinata, you should wait until you’re married to sleep in the same bed with someone,” Daichi explained and Hinata pouted.

“But I sleep in the same bed with my mommy and daddy and I’m not married to them.”

“That’s different. You’re their baby. You’re not Tobio’s baby, are you?”

“. . .No?”

“Then you sleep in the sleeping bag tonight,” Daichi stated with a ruffle of his hair and Hinata sighed, climbing into the open sleeping bag and pulled it over to cover himself. Tobio stopped Daichi before he leave the bedroom, smiling up at the teenager.

“Tonight was a fun night, even though we were separated from each other,” Tobio commented and Daichi paused, looking between the three boys. Tooru shrugged, pulling on his pajama buttons.

“I _guess_ it was fun. Not the best night of my life, probably second or third, but it was fun.”

“Yeah! Let’s get lost in the city next week! And Kenma and Suga can get lost with us! But you have to find us a lot faster next time, okay Daichi?” Hinata said and Daichi laughed.

“Sure, sure. Next time. . .now go to sleep, you three,” Daichi said, turning on his heel and walked down the stairs into the living room. The popcorn wasn’t burning anymore, but there was still a smell lingering. Daichi cracked the window just a bit to air out, taking the soggy bag of popcorn out the front door to throw away in the garbage can on the street. Headlights immediately illuminated Daichi’s figure and he jumped, quickly dumping the popcorn in the trashcan and thought of a perfectly good reason why he was throwing away popcorn at one in the morning to the Oikawas that were _surely_ pulling up. . .

Instead, he heard a light and happy laugh that he thought he wouldn’t hear in a long time.

“It’s just me! Relax!” Suga called, turning off his headlights as he climbed out of the pizza delivery car. Daichi placed a hand to his heart as he took in a deep breath.

“What are you doing here? _How_ did you even find out where I was babysitting?”

“Two things. First is this,” he said and tossed the volleyball Tooru left behind for Daichi to catch. The moment Daichi had the ball in his hands and got a closer look at it, written along the logo in cursive Sharpie was Tooru’s name and the address of the Oikawas. Daichi hummed, Suga approaching closer and crossed his arms. “I’d figure he would want his ball back. The second thing is I remembered that I was supposed to charge you my fee for driving you around,” Suga said and Daichi paled. Of course, it’s not like Suga _wanted_ to drive Daichi around for kicks. It was because he felt sorry for him and because luck was never on Daichi’s side to begin with.

Suga pulled out a notepad used for taking order and tapped his chin with the small pencil attached to it. “Let’s see. . .for damaging my mailbox, losing your kids and having me drive all around the city to help you look for them, staying out super late past the time my parents expected me to be home, paying out of my pocket to help get your car fixed, dealing with you being totally oblivious to how I thought you were cute and not fessing up that Bokuto and Kuroo dared you into asking me out on a date and not following through on it, you owe me one date.”

Daichi was about to ask for an ‘I O U’ as he fished for coins in his wallet when he paused. “W-What?”

Suga smiled and placed the notepad in his jacket pocket. “There’s a slasher movie out that looks really cool. I’ll buy the popcorn.”

“. . .You don’t want my money?”

Suga hummed. “Well you can pay for the movie if that’s what you mean,” Suga said and stepped closer to Daichi, smile getting sly. “You don’t think I came out here to just ask for money, do you?”

Daichi opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again as he tried to form a sentence and failed with each second. Suga only cocked his head to the side. “Well, what’s your answer?”

“Y-Yeah! Yeah, let’s go on a date! I like movies and popcorn!” Daichi said and Suga nodded with a laugh.

“Great. Next Friday night? When you _don’t_ have to babysit?”

“Yes, definitely.”

The two boys stood there, Suga rocking back and forth on his heels while Daichi’s brain was still processing that Suga asked him out on a date and thinks he’s cute and _he’s going on a fricking date with SUGA YES YES YES!!!_

“Kiss him, Daichi!”

Both of the boys turned to see the three kids looking at them out of Tooru’s window, Tobio making sure Tooru and Hinata didn’t practically fall out of the window due to how far they were leaning to get a closer look. Daichi blushed and Suga laughed.

“Shouldn’t you three be in bed?!” Suga shouted out.

“I want my volleyball!” Tooru shouted.

“Kiss him, Daichi! Kiss him quick before he leaves again!” Hinata shouted again and Daichi turned away, his hand going up to his face to hide his blush. Suga pulled Daichi’s hand away from his face, leaning in to give just a simple kiss to Daichi’s lips. Both of their mouths were closed, and the circumstances around it didn’t make it as romantic of a first kiss like Daichi always planned it to be. But in that moment in time, with Tobio barking to Hinata how ‘they shouldn’t be watching’, Hinata cheering in applause like he was watching the ending of his favorite movie, and Tooru shouting at Daichi to stop being gross and give him his volleyball, it strangely felt just perfect.

When Suga pulled away, lips still warm and cheeks red, Daichi gave a nervous cough and nodded his head. “Yeah, next Friday. I’ll pay for the movie. No kids.”

“Great. You know where to find me,” Suga said with a wink and kissed Daichi on the cheek. “I’ll see you later,” he said with a wave. “Goodnight, boys!” he shouted at the window, the three kids shouting ‘Goodnight Suga!’ back before Tobio closed the window and pulled the curtains shut. Daichi watched as Suga climbed back into his car and started the ignition, pulling away from the curb and turned around to head down the opposite direction of the Oikawa’s home. Daichi watched the car leave until he disappeared into the dark, turning around to slowly walk back into the house.

He leaned against the front door, blinking for a few moments before a big smile crept over his face that he couldn’t keep down even if he tried. He clenched his fist tight and raised it towards the ceiling as he let out a victory cry.

"BEST NIGHT EVER!"

"We're trying to pretend to sleep, Daichi!"

* * *

 

_Six weeks later_

* * *

 

“All _I’m_ saying is that technically, Suga asked _you_ out so you still lost the bet,” Kuroo said and Daichi glared at the boy over the half eaten pan of pizza.

“Just give him the money,” Akaashi said, sipping from his soda and Kuroo groaned, reaching into his wallet and pulled out a good wad of cash that Kuroo never wanted Daichi to find out about. Daichi took it with a triumphant grin, looking over to Suga with a grin.

“What about Bokuto? Where’s his pay?” Kuroo asked and Suga jutted a thumb over at Bokuto playing Dance Dance Revolution, stomping his feet wildly and waving his hands off-beat to the music. Next to him also stomping wild and raving mad were Tooru and Hinata, jumping back and forth to light up the dance panels. The announcer of the game was shouting out they were losing horribly, but they were being entertained and staying out of trouble, a win-win for Daichi and Akaashi.

“If Bokuto keeps agreeing to these little ‘play-dates’, then me and Daichi could hang out more even when he has to babysit,” Suga explained and Kuroo turned to look at Akaashi with a frown.

“You can’t be okay with this. Your boyfriend is spending more time playing with little kids than with you.”

Akaashi shrugged. “Bokuto likes kids. If he’s happy, I’m happy. Besides, Daichi said he’ll give me half of his pay to put up with Bokuto being distracted. I’ll get my time with him eventually.”

“That’s so not fair! How come you’re not paying _me_ to watch the kids?”

“Because you don’t want to share Kenma?” Daichi said matter-of-factly and Kuroo pouted. Kenma was off somewhere in the Nekoma arcade, probably trying to shake off Tobio since the boy developed just as weird of an interest in him like Hinata. Suga hummed and took a sip from his milkshake, giving Daichi a playful nudge.

“So where are you going to take me tonight after you drop the kids off? I was thinking go-karting.”

“With your crazy driving? No thanks,” Daichi said and Suga pouted, resting his head on Daichi’s shoulder.

“Boo, you’re not a fun boyfriend. Crazy driving is what makes go-karting exciting to begin with,” Suga said and Daichi tilted his head down to capture Suga’s lips in a sweet kiss. Kuroo gave an obnoxious groan.

“You’re not allowed to be all lovey-dovey when your kids are cockblocking me and Akaashi!”

“I said I wasn’t being cockblocked,” Akaashi replied and Kuroo slammed his hands on the table.

“That’s beside the point! Oi, Daichi!” Kuroo shouted loudly, but Daichi didn’t care. Suga intertwined his fingers with Daichi’s, the smile on his lips everything that Daichi could have ever wanted and the look in his eyes giving hope for the future Daichi couldn’t wait to experience with the boy by his side.

It might not have been the easiest and smoothest way to ask Suga out, but Daichi could file this moment in the few plans that actually went right.


End file.
